* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #880 / Revived #100 (ONE HUNDRED) on 2025 02 26*

Another excellent dragonfly with all its delicate embroidery and gilded wings. Love how its wings are tucked underneath.

I'm not sure about that long white threadlike thing on the right. Is it stuck to a cobweb?

Another lovely documentary photo that hints at art. The fog lends to mystery, which is why I love it so. But here we also have contrasting colors, a winding road wet with moisture, and a lone figure. Lots of interest.

I agree with Andrew's explanation.

Shadows and reflections are not the same thing. A reflection differs based on where you station yourself, the properties of the reflective surface as well as the characteristics of the reflected object. A shadow produced geometrically according to certain factors of the light and the object blocking that light and looks different based on where the blocking object is located.

Interesting puzzle to make us think...

Nice sunset light!

I am relieved to see that it is a building constructed to be as it is for decorative purposes, because it would be hard to imagine a functionality for that peculiar lurching style of the corrugated metal walls. Photographing it in darkness as you did lends additional interest because it leaves more mystery to it. At first glance I interpreted it as an industrial building on waterfront, which really made me wonder. The geometry and the reflection contribute to a fine composition.

Nice photo essay of a balloon lift. (I think the first/second are duplicates). Lovely landscape for a background, and a rather nice sky too. The third is my favorite because of the depth of the scene and the lighting.

Thanks minniev. There are some points to this image. Like many animals there are colour variations. This one has vivid markings I hadn't seen before. One thing I liked was that some of the softer grey lines on its body are actually shadows from wing filaments.

The title was to cover for the somewhat ghastly background...

Yes it is a piece of a cobweb.

Story here - dprevived.com/t/streamers-cobwebs-rescues/6930/

When I was a toddler I was petrified of dragonflies because I assumed they might bite or sting and they were much bigger than the bees etc, and I assumed would pack a bigger punch.

Could say things have gone full circle now...

Having looked at this again, Andrew is correct but I'm somewhat correct. Well, maybe. The shadow is doing something else that is bending it in a different direction. The lower edge of the rock shadow has a different path to the upper edge. The upper line is almost straight while the lower line has, I count three, changes of direction. This is resulting in the upper and lower rock shadow edge lines appearing to be converging whereas the expected pattern would be for them to move apart (like the sun reflection is in the shot. The lower edge shadow changes direction because the water is in a couple of different planes as deeper water advances over shallower water. When the water hits the shore, the beach is on a significantly different plane to the water and at this point and here the shadow bends more noticeably upwards. It doesn't happen to the top line of the shadow because almost that entire line of shadow runs along the beach slope.ie, it is running along much the same plane relative to the sun and rock.
Well, perhaps. Further opinions welcomed.

All of the above??? 😁

In defense of Fireplace, I don't for one moment think he would confuse reflections with shadows, nor the fact that a shadow of an object located off the observer's line of sight to the light source, would continue on a different angle to the line of sight.

I think there are two things in play here.

I agree the plane of the beach is different and to some degree will affect the apparent location of the shadow.
I also think that the shape of the rock has an affect on the shadow, making it appear to not point towards the sun. The peak of the rock is towards the left which pushes the left side of the shadow further that way. If we trace a line from the middle of the shadow through the peak, it does point to the sun.

A link that describes umbra and penumbra and shows their converging and diverging shadow cones.

www.britannica.com/science/penumbra-eclipse

Razor sharp against buttersmooth OOF blur. Lovely.
The only thing I would change here, is the crop (just slightly).
Having the dragonfly straight in the bull's eye center makes the image look somewhat static.
(That might have been the intention: these fellows are quite good at hovering stationary.)
If we crop away just a bit from the top and from the right side, the dragonfly sits a bit higher and a bit more to the right in the frame.
That would create the illusion of it swooping in and down in the direction of most open space (bottom left).
And suddenly there is a suggestion of dynamic motion.

Exactly.

The "lines" in the shadow are it's elongated shape, that shape is conical. Each point on that line is a path from the sun to the edge to the sand. That the "triangle" formed by the right edge of the shadow and the reflection exaggerates the difference is why is stands out in a 2D representation. Somehow we expect the shadow to be formed by the point at the edge of the object rather than be a representation of it's shape.

The interesting point is; when we glance at the image that we do expect the shadow to follow an imposed geometric logic of following the implied radial lines from the sun. Our default position is to apply an incorrect assumption of how we think the image should look, then when it doesn't our first instinct is to question the image rather than our own false assumption.

We try to fit the image into the logic we create, the model we understand, we impose a geometric order that rarely is the "truth" of the object. If we assume a line is vertical then it must be so in the picture or the picture is incorrect!

Thank you Roel.

I would have been happy if you had posted your suggestion but your prompt has helped me create a better version. I may have cropped off more than you meant but wanted to get rid of the bright areas of dead stalks. I got to keep the bokeh balls and the subject and cobweb "streamer" is more prominent.

Thanks for your replies about this post, glad it got you thinking 😊
12 years ago that image got me thinking about such long shadows, and reflections of light on water’s surface. And other effects too.
These are things we see around us all the time and often just take for granted.
At the time I was also painting a few scenes and wondered why my result sometimes didn’t look quite right.
Andrew has described it very well, these two lines are caused by 2 completely different effects, so there is, in reality, no puzzle at all:
- Long shadows are visible behind the object along the line continuing from the light source to the object, no matter where the viewer is standing this will remain the same.
- Lines, made on water by bright light sources, reflecting from the many small ripples on the surface will always “follow you around” and come” directly towards you”
There are some complicating factors as well. As Mike mentioned, if the surface where a shadow is falling is not flat and horizonal, then the shadow could appear to bend up or down, away from that line. I’ve seen that happen often on snowy slopes in the mountains, with for example the distinct shadows from fence posts on the snow on a steep slope. And you can also see it here in my image (more mildly) with the shadow on the slightly sloping beach.

That is really clear and sharp. A great action shot with a nice smooth background.

This is the opposite of what I had in mind (I would have cropped away BEHIND the dragonfly, to give the insect more space to fly into).
But it does also work. Yes, getting rid of the dead stalks on the left is a good thing. Less confusing verticals.
Keeping the thread of spiderweb is also a good choice. Like that pulls the dragonfly from flying out of the frame.

Ohoh! I got my rights and lefts mixed up. Early onset d.... I don't want to write the word...

When I was a kid, it was a known fact that they could sew your lips shut!

Rich

Thank you for great comment.