Murcia photo of the month October 2024
Here’s the top image of the month taken by the Los Alcázares Digital Camera Club (LADCC)
What do we understand by ‘shadows’? LADCC had to get to grips with this problem for their last competition. A small presentation was given by club co-ordinator Richard Townend to assist the budding photographers, and then LADCC members set to work on the task in hand for their monthly competition.
Firstly, however, it was important to understand what exactly is meant by ‘shadow’ as opposed to ‘silhouette’. In simple terms, a shadow is formed when the subject obstructs the flow of light and the outline of the subject falls onto another surface. Silhouettes are images of a subject across a light source which is present in the background, rendering the silhouette dark and usually depicted with a lighter background.
With this in mind the club’s members sent in some fabulously diverse photos that captured the essence of ‘shadows’, from ruins and church scenes, garden and creative indoor scenes to long, short, curious and amusing shadows – the members were indeed creative!
However, it was a photo taken by Sally Gasston, on holiday, that took top marks this month. Sally wanted to try to recreate a picture she had seen many years ago in a National Geographic magazine, which led the viewer to look at the shadow first, thinking it was the main object. An explanation and close-up view then showed what was creating the shadow, which was hard to see as the photo was taken from directly above. It was almost an optical illusion.
Sally set up the photo using a small drone/camera in the middle of a playing field in Runaway Bay, Australia (you can see the extraordinary lengths members go to for the camera club?!). Setting the drone 7 metres above Sally and husband Bob, they had to stand still in an exaggerated pose in order for the drone to capture the moment. This took many attempts to get the right image, which would not have been a problem had the playing field been empty.
However, Sally and Bob were aware that there were a few people around, and getting closer, with measuring tapes and sticks. They obviously wanted them to move on! The next day they realised that the strange looks they were getting were from staff of the World Frisbee Championships who were wanting to set up their field for the World Championships the next day! Ooops!
Nevertheless, the shadow image created was liked by the camera club members and readers will agree that the first thing you see in this photo is two shadows, and not two embarrassed individuals, trying to get their selfie photo right! The original colour image was changed to black and white, in order that the viewer sees the shadow first as opposed to the colours of their clothes!
LADCC are now launching their autumn programme and have a curious monthly topic challenge ahead of them entitled ‘Combustion’. Last month’s regular camera club outing was sensibly postponed due to the potential nature of causing any ‘Combustion’ problems in the Murcian heat!
The club usually meets twice a month, with an indoor ‘workshop’ and often an outing toward the end of the month, where the group gets together to collectively work on the monthly competition. The club welcomes new members, either visitors or residents, as with modern day technology we can all keep in contact for training sessions, sharing knowledge etc or more regularly via ‘group chats’.
If you would like more information about the Club, please do not hesitate to visit the website www.Los-alcazares-camera.club.com or contact Jill via email on informationladcc@gmail.com
