Yesterday, when I visited the medieval fortress, apart from the so called office photo shoot, what I had in mind was to photograph some shadow as well, because shadows can be a lot of fun sometimes. You have to know where to look for shadows and when. You have two choices to catch some nice shadows. Before noon and/or after noon, but you have to know which one to choose as some places can offer you shadows only before noon, while others only after noon. The quality of the shadow also depends heavily on what time it is. Sometimes you can get long shadows, other times the desired shadows become very short.
Lucky me, I knew this structure would be standing there, waiting for me and as it was sunny, I had all the ingredients I needed. Just look at this beauty. It is the cover of the crafstman's studio, which dates back to 1750. These medieval studios were brought to light about a decade ago and to protect the structure, which is in open air, this arched cover was built.
I'm not an architecture, but must have been one in one of my previous lives as I love it, so I started to look closely how this arched cover is put together and must admit, it was very clever to use wood and as little metal as possible. I suppose they wanted to keep it real and stay as close to medieval architecture as possible, which I highly appreciate. Seeing a modern cover here, up to 21th century standards would have been weird.
By having a close look at these bent beams, I was able to figure out how it was done. If you look at the upper part, it is made of several layers. Should have counted the layers at the scene to have the exact number, but I didn't, but it looks like there are around 15 layers.
Now you're wondering how can you get those arched beams. The method is similar to when making boats, wooden barrels or musical instruments, only the wood type and quality is different. You water the wood, then start bending it slowly while heating it, till you get to the necessary curve. Then you let it dry.
The shadow left by this amazing structure is anything but usual, but it's beautiful and changing all the time, based on the status of the sun.
Next I captured this shadow, which is an old trick. Balustrades always leave a nice shadow and if the balustrade is not exactly plain and simple, it makes it more interesting.
This is how the other side looked like, from above.
And this is the view from the other side. Symmetry is totally missing as the sun was at the previous side. In the afternoon the situation would have been the other way around.
Here on the other hand you can see symmetry. This is a part of a wall, that has not been finished and features an old wall from medieval times. Someone decided to finish the wall in an unusual way, instead of making it plan, they have chosen to make it like how domino pieces fit together.
Here's the black and white version of one of the photos, but I'm not thrilled about it. Maybe with a better edit it would look different, but for the time being I'd stay with the original.