Taking Steps

Long Winter Shadows On A Melbourne Afternoon

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Even though it's winter here, the afternoon sun can sometimes produce great shadows. About ten days ago, I was going to take a straight-on shot of these steps. Then I thought it would be far more interesting to wait a few minutes and actually try and get a shot of feet on the steps as someone walked past.

I was standing on the Yarra side of the Melbourne Exhibition Centre and you'd reckon there'd be a lot of people walking past. But no, I had to wait a few minutes and I was determined to shoot the first person, without asking them to walk at a particular angle or at a certain pace.

It's an interesting task, because you don't know whether the person is going to walk straight, diagonally, up the stairs or down them.

Luckily this person strode along the top of the walkway and I was able to get a perfectly candid, unposed shot of his shoes - and a clearly defined shadow.

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Post Of The Day

Today's winner is Shadow with I Cannot Love This World. The other top contenders were Eclectic Effervescence with I Will Help You April Purinton; Eat, Play, Love with Coldplay Live In Omaha; Jen's Daily Photo with Abandoned Farm; Thumbelina with Day One; Deb with No New Piercings; My Life In Flip-Flops with The Family Silver; Shrinky with Replacement Crew and Les Becker with News Flash: Love Found On The Internet. Do pay them a visit and leave a comment if you have time.

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Post Of The Day

Today's joint winners are Shadow with The Suitcase III and Sniffles And Smiles with Heart Speak. The other top contenders were Dad's Interpretation Of Things with There Is Good News; Dishing With Debbie with What Was He Thinking?; Bateau De Banane with Do The Five-Day Drag Once More; Mops And Pops Place with No Special Hugs, Thank You, Just Kittens; Grace with New Photo and NitWit1 with Bad Hair Day Part II. Do pay them a visit and leave a comment if you have time.

You can nominate a post too. Just leave a comment here with the URL or link - and tell us the name of the blogger you are nominating. Righty-o, then, it's over to you ....

For my RedBubble photography, go here, or click the sidebar link.

Summer Daze

The Brighter The Sun, The Stronger The Shadow

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Today is the first day of summer and as any photographer will tell you, this is the time of year when the shadows are strongest and longest. I thought I'd post these shots taken along St Kilda Road, in front of the Arts Centre. The metallic white arches are always intriguing, but I also framed the shot (above) to include the shadows cast on the footpath. I thought I had done a good job - until I walked back a couple of metres. That's when I took the second photograph (below) and I'm sure you'll agree that it's a far more striking image.

Shadow Ministry

D'ya Reckon This Could Be Charlotte's Church?

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

This shadow looks as though it has been cast by some towering cathedral with an immense spire. But it's just a quirky combination of mid-morning light and architecture. There is a pyramid-shaped piece of masonry on the building on the right of this picture. It's not even a couple of metres high, but when the sun is at a certain height, it casts the shadow of the masonry on the triangular, opaque blue glass ceiling on the left. Regular readers would recall that a few weeks ago I posted Darth Invader with a couple of photographs evoking one of the most memorable villains in movie history.

Let's Twist Again

Like We Did Last Summer

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

This was a double delight for me. Not only was this unusual shape gleaming in the sun, but I also had the added benefit of the ribbon-like shadow as well. It was about one o'clock in the afternoon, so the sun was overhead, hence the shallow angle of the shadow. To my mind, the image is even richer because of the shadow of the parapet in the background. Look carefully at the concrete parapet and you'll see the ``windows'' are rectangles about thirty to thirty-five centimetres high, yet their reflections are so much smaller and almost square.