97 - Chasing Shadows



It always amazes me what an infinite number of images you can find if you only open up your perception and keep to the mindset that motives are what you see. This evening, when I was on my way home, I saw a group of bicycles fastened to stands, and for a moment when a car drove by behind them, just in the blink of an eye, I saw an amazing amount of rapidly changing shadows. I stood and watched.

Not all cars did this. It took a certain angle to trigger it, but eventually it would happen again. Thus I waited for a promising car approaching in a distance, raised the camera, focused on the bicycles and tried to shoot in the right moment. Well, OK, I could simply have set the D200 to high speed mode and fire off a burst at 5 frames per second, but in a way I deemed that unsportsmanlike. It took me two or three cars to get the shot.


There are 3 comments

Ted Byrne   (2007-01-20)

Is this a single shot? My eye either sees or imagines at least one seam, perhaps more? Regardless, it is a sizzling image. It is an abstract ambiguity bordering upon surrealism - but oddly, in full focus and full color! Cool.

Ted

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andreas   (2007-01-20)

It's a single shot, yes. The light source is a car, and that means at least two headlights, for some makes probably four. Combine this with the fact that the car passes very near to the bicycles, and you get an effect that is dizzying even on a still photograph, much more so in motion. That's what got my attention in the first place 🙂

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John DeMott   (2007-01-20)

Great shot, Andreas. Very well seen and executed. The contrast between the completely realistic image of the bikes at the top of the frame and the abstraction in the rest of the frame is great.

I know what you are saying about having wanted to take the photo in single shot mode, but the whole series from a high speed burst might look cool, too, as it could show the motion you described in a series of still frames.

John

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