Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Game of shadows


Here is a game of shadows for today. I took this photo from the Seine embankment in the heart of Paris. The wall in the background belongs to the Ile de la Cité (one of the two islands in the middle of Paris) and the shadows are actually people - most likely tourists - sitting on one of the many Bateaux Mouches (boats) that run through Paris. I kind of like the effect.

24 comments:

  1. I like the effect, Eric.

    In NE Ohio, there are a few woodcrafters who cut life-size silhouettes of people and animals, paint them black, and then sell them to people who put them in their yards as "yard art." I have seen everything from ducks and geese to dogs and cats to running children, farmers, and lounging men and women. What you are supposed to see when you look at them in the yard is what you see when looking at your photo.

    Very nice!

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  2. Fabulous! This reminds me of the shadow theater at le Chat Noir in the 1890s.

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  3. The lines of the shadows are amazingly sharp. Great work, Eric!

    If you hadn't said where you were standing when you took the photo, I would have thought you were the photographer's shadow on that Bateaux Mouche. Or maybe you are? Do tell.

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  4. I do too Lord Eric, the Right Hon. DP of Paris. You have such an eye for spotting this type of thing. Very interesting. Lovely to be here again. x Yes, that's a kiss for Eric. It's quite hot in Cheltenham at the moment........;)

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  5. Yeah, I do too! Did the pic come out like that naturally? Great shot, Eric, really!

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  6. (Oh, and Michael, I know it's near my old neighborhood, but no, it isn't me on the picture ;)

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  7. Bonjour Eric,

    Etes-vous photographe professionel? Les photos sont tres, tres belles! Les ombres, ils sont mysterieux...

    Je visterai Paris cette Novembre, vite! Vite!

    Voici mon blog:
    www.veryclicky.blogspot.com

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  8. Love the effect too Eric. I wonder what could be done with it if we took Chris' idea and cut it out as a silhouette.

    Tomate, I hope you laughed and not snarled by that comment.

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  9. I'm assuming that the attention of the people making up the silhouette of the Bateaux Mouche is on the couple to the left here or perhaps a couple like them.

    Or, yet again, maybe they are enthralled with a famous "nude descending a staircase" that, in this case, might give access to a quay along the Seine.

    I like the touches of color within the silhouette.

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  10. Great shot ... the shadows are so dark against the light brick.

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  11. Very cool shot! I also thought you were the photographer in the silhouette!

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  12. Superbes jeux d'ombres. An original composition, and symbolically, man up against the proverbial, insormountable wall. Bravo Eric! Longue vie a ta creativite!!! :)

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  13. this brings back such nice memories as a while ago I was a tourist in a bateau mouche just like those in the picture...

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  14. Ok, I gave everyone plenty of time, but nobody mentioned Plato's cave shadows: we don't really understand reality, we just see shadows on the wall of our cave. We're not really seeing people on the quai along the Seine, we're just seeing shadows in Eric's photo of the stone wall.

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  15. Oh goody. Let's foray into the world of philosophical thought. "And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent."

    Sorry to take another turn today. BTW, Bom Dia, Monica, glad to see you. :)

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  16. And one prisoner escapes the cave, runs outside, and sees the real quai, the Seine, les Batoux Mouches, et Lutece. But then, full of excitement, he returns to the prisoners who are still chained in the cave, and tells them of the wonders, and that the shadows are not real, only shadows. They deny this, and then are angered by his glorious visions.

    Remember, they made Socrates drink hemlock...

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  17. You've certainly found Bresson's decisive moment here.

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  18. Gail's Man, thank you for the inspiration to learn something:

    "Il n'y a rien dans ce monde qui n'ait un moment decisif" ("There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment").

    "Photography is not like painting," Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957.
    "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."

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  19. Merci everyone. Sorry, I'm kinda missing these days, but I have tons of work. Soon it'll be more calm ;)

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  20. Awesome Eric! I love the person with the camera...what does he see?? Will he fall into la Seine?? LOL!

    Ohhhh, Jeff...so that was you next to us at Le Chat Noir in 1892!! You got awfully sloppy after that bottle of Absinthe!! ;-)

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