silhouettes and the city

I so enjoyed seeing everyone's silhouette photos in the pool over the past couple of weeks.  I will admit though, I struggled a bit shooting my own silhouette for this post.  I had my mind set on an outdoor shot.  And when you live in a large city, it can be tough to find those classic long, uninterrupted horizons without the urban jungle getting in your way.  When I saw this photo from London by cafedereves below, it hit me...let's try and work with this urban silhouettes thing instead of against it!

I took all sorts of pictures: down alley ways and up tall buildings...over water towers and under statues.  None of the photos spoke to me as much as this one of my muse, the George Washington Bridge (you may have seen my photos of her before!).   What can I say, she's always there for me, and with the late day sun setting behind her earlier this week, I found exactly what I'd been looking for.  

~christy of urban muser

piccadilly sunset by cafedereves

family

I love how silhouettes display simple togetherness.  I love the little details: fingers, shoe laces, wispy hair and long eyelashes. I love the beautiful ways to capture families and love in treasured photographs!

"There are lots of ways to be a family.  Your family is special no matter what kind it is."
-from The Family Book by Todd Parr

April from april's 365

family silhouette by soapchickash

night at the museum

I knew when this theme was announced that I wanted to do something inspired by one of my favourite illustrators Jan Pienkowski. Having been familiar with his work from a young age, I have always been drawn to shadow puppets and their silhouettes. I have a beautiful Japanese paper cutout on my wall next to the bed which I love to wake up to for the same reason. The shapes alone are so evocative, with no need for colour or texture. A few months back we had a sleepover at the British Museum where one of the activities was to make a monster shadow puppet. Here is Ella's oh-so-scary puppet, taken with my iPhone using the Hipstamatic app.

FeeMail's picture shows some terrifying shadow puppets from the Munich Museum. Look at that sly look the devil cutout is giving us. Yikes!

Some of you have seen me doing battle with textures already...now you know why! See you next time.

kirstin
x

City Museum by FeeMail

in a fleeting moment

Often when I go out with my camera I have a plan of what I want to shoot and how. And then there are those rare occasions of serendipity. The shutter is pressed instinctively, and a few fleeting moments difference in timing would capture a completely different shot. That’s the case for my photo of ducks floating on the lake at sunset. I was there to capture the sunset, but the ducks were so compelling I couldn’t help but watch them as they were gliding through the evening light. They were in constant motion, and I pressed the shutter as I followed them with my lens without thinking about the settings on my camera. I didn't plan a silhouette shot of ducks that day, but was lucky enough to capture one.

In  lesleylouise's photo I can't help but wonder if she had a similar experience. Was she out with her camera to capture a golden sunset that evening? And as she noticed the sailboat gliding through the water and the light, turned her camera on it without a thought and captured that perfect fleeting moment and silhouette in the sunset light?

xo maureen of cottage 960

sunset sailing by lesleylouise

sitting in the morning sun

First off, I am so excited to be here with ya'll, writing my first post since joining this incredible group of women photographers as the newest 9th muse!

There's something magical about the morning sun. Each morning, as I'm trying to wake myself up, Kitty Paw (my cat - if you don't already know her, you certainly will) will jump off our bed and walk into the next room to feel the sun's joyful glow. Even on these cold winter mornings, I can't help but smile as I see her beautiful silhouette against the morning rays.

If you're a cat person, you know exactly what I'm talking about. When I saw Debi's photograph, it reminded me of all the times I've captured Kitty Paw sitting in the window. I love how the light gently hit her cat's face. I sometimes wonder what Kitty Paw is thinking about...or if she desires a life outside of our home. Either way, the simplicity, gracefulness and peace of these beautiful creatures is addictive.

Until next time,

Ashley of Ramblings and Photos

Cat in the Window by Debi Bishop

bird on a wire

I was curious to trace the etymology of the word silhouette, given our theme this week.  It's a beautiful sounding word (go ahead, say it aloud right now... put a little flourish on the last syllable... doesn't that roll off the tongue nicely?), and I figured it would have some deeper meaning.  In actuality, the word is named after an 18th century Frenchman named Etienne de Silhouette,  a politician who controlled finances, apparently not very well.  He was criticized as frugal (to excess) and parsimonious in his work, and that description later came to be attached to silhouettes as we now know them in the art and photography world - something that is very simple, or frugal so to speak.

However they came to be, they're a beautiful way to capture shapes  - both simple and abstract - and to highlight negative space.

RDN87's beautiful photo of branches and birds caught my eye in the pool, which was such a pleasure to scroll through this week, a visual feast of silhouettes.

cheers,
mosey of mosey along

IMG by RDN87

your silhouette

Your Silhouette
by Paul Holmes

Before the final golden rays
Of the glowing orange sun
Cease to dance in lovely ways
Around clouds soft spun,
Your silhouette enchants me
And makes my spirits rise,
I eagerly wait to see
The blue beauty of your eyes.
Anticipation grows
Until, at last the shadows fade
Unveiling beauty as a rose
No longer left in the shade.
Your silhouette gives me
A taste of things to come,
A picture of loveliness set free –
My heart you have truly won.

A silhouette may only be an outline of an person or object but to me it is much more. The shape can express fun, joy or even love. My companion photo by jofabi brings this poem to life for me.

You may read more poetry from this inspired UK poet, Paul Holmes at poemhunter.

suki of suki photography

Jan 15 Cooling It by Jofabi

picturing thought

The beauty of silhouettes, to me, is what we don't see. We fill those unseen details from our own imagination. We bring our own thoughts and emotions into the image. A person in silhouette becomes a portrait of humanity instead of an individual.

In Kiersten Bree's image below I can't help but wonder what the young boy is thinking, there at the top of the hill, as the storm clouds roll in. I start to create my own narrative for his thoughts.

Do you do the same? What emotions do you see, what stories do you imagine for these images?

kat of The Kat Eye View of the World

conlan in silhouette by Kiersten  Bree

____________________

A quick note - don't miss the muse flash on our more musing site - muse Kirstin and I are doing a photowalk in London at the end of this month. Check out the muse flash for more details. We hope you can join us!

lucky shot

I never make stupid mistakes.

Only very, very clever ones.

 ~ John Peel

I would like to say that the above shot was deliberately underexposed for a dramatic portrait of a boy and his triumphant catch.  But like most silhouette photographs, what happened as an accident shooting into the setting sun, resulted in a classic shot.  With just an outline, you can feel the pull of the line, the struggle of the fish, and the impending fist pump in the air from one happy boy.

I loved Nicola's description of her capture on the beaches of Turks and Caicos. "Two happy children + beautiful sunset light + total failure to check the settings on my camera = really lucky shot!"  I completely agree. I doubt that the shot would have had as much drama if captured the way she intended. Even without the surface details, I can feel the magical moment shared.

Thank you for sharing all your lovely images with us.  I will see you again in nine days when I start musing on Textures.

Until then, stay sweet.

tammy lee of bliss and folly

Not Your Typical Holiday Photo! by Design by Nicola

and the next theme is... SILHOUETTES

suki photography

Silhouettes are dark (or black) shapes against a bright light source. It is common to use the rising or setting sun for silhouettes. The bright light shadows the subject matter, but you may still need to underexpose your subject a bit.  A silhouette photo of something small or insignificant will often lose its magic so it is preferable to use a substantially sized object.

This technique can be done with any kind of camera. It may take a little trial and error until you perfect it but when you do, you will find silhouettes dramatic and a lot of fun!

Helpful tips to get you started:

1. Meter for the sky, then focus on the object. Voila, there you have a silhouette.
2. If you place the sun directly behind your object, it will have a fun glow around the outlines as seen in the picture above at the dog's fuzzy head.
3. Raise your f-stop to a higher number to achieve a nice depth of field in your picture.

Get your family or furry family members to stand still for you. Bribery is allowed.  I am really looking forward to seeing all the wonderful silhouette pictures in the flickr pool.

Make sure to stop by tomorrow when Tammy will be handing off her muse day to our second Muse's Muse, one of our faithful followers selected to muse on CREATURE FEATURE.

suki of suki photography blog

tammy lee bradley