Vantage point is everything in street photography. Sometimes we can shoot close in, while other times we must back away. Every now and then we can find a spot where we won’t be seen at all, such as from high up on the ramparts that enclose the ancient city of St. Malo, France. While shooting down from on St. Malo’s lovely beaches, I noticed this quartet enjoying a friendly competition. Then I looked again at the scene, and from this particular angle, their shadows incongruously become players as well. Four become eight, and the ball the lady is tossing is suspended in the air. Yet the ball in the air also looks very much like the one sitting on the ground. The only way we can know if her ball is in flight is because is because the ball on the ground casts a small shadow, while the ball in the air does not. Although this is technically a beach and not a street shot, there really is no difference. Both are about the inter-relationship of people in public spaces, and both are about the meaning of moments captured in forever in time.
Shadows are always fascinating in street photography, because they become symbolic extensions of the people who cast them. In this case, the four shadows seem to become part of a game.

I am more conscious than ever about the role of shadows in my street photography, because of what I’ve learned from pbase photographer Jen Zhou’s street imagery. Click on the thumbnail at the bottom to see Jen’s shot of a pacing Shanghai cab driver.
It continues to haunt me – I see it now whenever I am looking down at a scene from above on a sunny day, and it causes me to find meanings in my images that I might not have even considered before seeing Jen’s shot. My own Shadow Game was inspired by Jen’s taxi driver image, which I first saw only a few days before I left for Europe. While I did not copy her concept, I was certainly aware of it as I shot. There really are no new ideas in photography. There are only new ways to express old ideas.