On Shadows
The drama has arrived!
Welcome to the Tuesday UnRecipe post for all subscribers—all about shadows and light! On Friday, paid subscribers will receive a recipe for a cream cheese pie. As always, thanks for being here. You can learn more about the work that I do on my portfolio.
If you’ve ever worked with me, heard me talk about photography for any length of time, or seen a woman walking through the alleys of Evanston during golden hour, you know something about me already: light fascinates me.
I always tell my clients that light can be used as a prop in the same way that a really pretty East Fork bowl or a beautiful cluster of grapes can be, and there’s no time that I put this theory to the test like I do when I’m traveling. I have a thing with checking bags, so I’m always packing as light as I can—I rarely pack extra lenses, let alone props from my collection to use.
This trip to Italy presented a challenge: I was there for a client project soon to be revealed, and I knew that I needed to take a tripod. I debated for weeks if I should take my strobe or at least a speedlight to help me capture what I needed to capture for this project. In the end, I left it behind, and I’m so glad I did. As my photography mentor, Rachel Korinek, says, the limitations forced me to be more creative in my approach. This collection is the story of how that played out.
In these photos, the subject is defined completely by light. In some cases, the shadow forces a spotlight onto the subject, like the column or the pastry. In others, the light itself is the subject, like the photograph of the lantern shadow or the church candle. I wasn’t expecting to have a photo story about the way that light could define an image—I thought I was focusing on capturing color—but it turns out that light can overpower color in certain situations and force your eye to see things differently.
See you back here Friday for a recipe and then the following week for the final photo essay!