Lobby Group

Reflections Can Create A Familiar Composite Image

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

This shot was taken in the lobby of the Perth Sheraton, earlier this week while we were on the west coast for a family wedding. I was in a hurry as I walked to the car park in the company of Mrs Authorblog, but as we crossed from the reception desk to the doors, this sight caught my eye.

I was concentrating on several other factors, so I couldn't immediately identify what it was that attracted my attention. But I knew that I had to take the shot. I had walked through the lobby of the hotel several times in the previous 48 hours, but the sunlight had never produced this effect before.

Mrs Authorblog, being a good sport, waited for me, although I must admit that I have a faint memory of her rolling her eyes and tapping one foot on the marble floor. Let's put it this way. Some husbands have a wandering eye for, well, eye candy. I have a wandering eye for art, wherever and however unexpectedly it may appear.

As always, I had my camera bag slung across my shoulders, so it only took me a few seconds to take the shot. It was only after we'd flown home to Melbourne and I looked at the solitary image on my computer screen that I realised what had attracted my attention in the first place.

The image, in totality, looks as if it has been shot in some mystical cathedral. Look carefully and you'll see what I mean. The dark shape of the simple wooden crosspiece now appears as a bold crucifix, dominating the middle of the frame.

And, quite in keeping with the spirit of the theme, the striking colours of the painting on the left, when viewed through the doorway, now look for all the world like an ethereal stained-glass window.

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Cloud Controller

Finding A Window Of Opportunity

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Sometimes you "see" a shot where you least expect it. And I guess it is just as important to recognise the opportunity as it is to drop everything, pick up a camera and take the shot.

I took this in our room at the Sheraton in Perth a few days ago, when we were on the west coast of this huge country-continent. My Ray-Bans ("sunnies", as we call them here) were on the table and I was just getting a few things organised before my nephew’s wedding when I noticed the clean reflection in one lens of the sunglasses.

The temperature was closing in on 39 Celsius, which is about 100 Fahrenheit, so it wasn’t surprising that the sky was clear, unsullied blue as far as the eye could see. And given that we were on the 17th floor of the Sheraton, my eye could see a very long way across the beautiful Swan River.

I chose to focus on the gold rim of the Ray-Bans, which I thought would draw attention to the reflection of the sky, graced with only a single cloud. Had I waited, the cloud would have changed shape or disappeared entirely.

I didn’t move the sunglasses to get a better view of the reflection, simply because I believe that the true test of a photographer is the ability to shoot any scene in any light at any angle and at any time. On this occasion, I was lucky, because the colours of the electronic room keycard, the hue of the wooden surface of the desk and the golden shapes of the coins were perfect for what I was trying to achieve.

Just for the record, those are two-dollar coins, the second-smallest in Australian currency. In the photograph below, you can also see a few one-dollar coins on the right of the frame. The two-dollar coins are only fractionally larger in circumference than our little five-cent coins. Maybe this was the "money shot" in more ways than one.


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