The Shadow

[Jeff Cashdollar]

While shooting this morning, I noticed Blue Herons flying to the top of a bridge and perching. With the sun at my back, I captured some of their shadows moving up a cement wall.

Canon 40D & 400MM 5.6 Prime
EV=+1/3
@1600
f/5.6
HH


LR--->CS4

[BillTyler]

This is a really interesting concept, nicely carried out. The angles of sun and wall combine to distort the bird so that though it is still recognizable, there is an air of mystery as well.

Bill

[Lance Peters]

Hi Jeff - like the idea - think this is a little like shooting a reflection - needs to be graphically strong to work really well - This is quite good - not sure how big the wall was - or if it was possible to have captured him so that the black line did not run through the middle of the shadow.

See if this is any better - cropped vertical and did selective colour on the blacks to make it pop a little.

[Lance Peters]

Or like this - quick and dirty change s- you can do much better :)

[Cheryl Flory]

darkening the blacks does give it more punch. But I like seeing the wall details showing through the shadow too. If leaving space, how about room for the shadow to "fly into"?

very nice idea! what a great way to work a bad lighting situation!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

The wall is huge, size of a football field. The trick is, when the birds do fly in the right direction to ensure their shadows are full images. Because of the magnification factor theses shadows were probably 400% larger than the the actual bird. Given the variety of their flight directions and the speed of the climb I had less than 2 seconds to capture the shot. Hard to get one w/o a line (cement expansion joint). Took me 24 shoots to get just one full body image.

I like the transparency in the shadow and the line in the wall, thought a tad distracting is part of the image. I will admit, Lance's vertical repost with a tighter crop void of the line is appealing to me and is probably a stronger image overall.

[Alfred Forns]

This is so Cool !!! Proud of you Beep !!!! Fine re post keep strengthening image !!! Big Congrats !!!!

[Fabs Forns]

This is so creative, Jeff, I'm proud of you! Would probably never come up with something like this.
Glad to see the juices working in you head :)

[Jeff Cashdollar]

AL and Fabs, thank you. learned most of my Photoshop skills in your workshop that assisted the production of this picture.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Very creative Jeff, love the original post. It reminds me of a cave wall painting.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Thank you Jackie,..I have learned tons from you over the last two years and I appreciate the kind words.

[denise ippolito]

Jeff, Great eye for this one! I really like the creativity!! Congrats!!

[Ron Boisvert]

Hi Jeff,
That's a really neat and creative shot. I also like Lance's repost with the expansion joint removed. Nice work!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Thanks to everyone for the input, I liked the shot but needed feedback.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I quite like what you did Jeff. The line in the wall does not bother me that much and I can certainly appreciate that you made every possible effort to capture agains a clean part of that wall. I really love the idea. Thanks for sharing.

I do like the cleaned up wall recess, however, if I were to go that far, I'd hocus-pocus away the two vertical white lines as well. As is, my attention is held firmly to those!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Akos,

I can see your face, nice pic. Thanks for the input.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Jeff,
I like what you did here...Mr. Peters' repost makes it much stronger with the darker shadow and crop factor...:cool: