in this post i want to move away from the sublime, the exotic, the spectacular and even the natural. please take a moment to focus on a few everyday, plain objects and the complex play of reflections and shadow among them. the same day i took the "guess the shadow" photo of my wife looking out a window at her workplace, i took these shots as the low december light shone through another window directly onto a mirror. here's an overview before i get to the entry photo. to the right of the shelf with the soap bottle is the mirror. there is a blurred wash basin to the left of the shelf out of this photo..
notice the shadow of the shelf is from the direct sunlight. there is a weak shadow of the bottle as well but there is also another much clearer shadow of the bottle back toward the window from the light reflected in the mirror. notice also you can see the opposite wall in the mirror. that is the wall the window is in.
the bright light on the shelf is from the mirror.
the poster on the wall gets no direct light, the shine comes from light bouncing off the mirror or maybe even from the basin
the photo of simple objects below is the contest entry. taken from only in the mirror, it is more technical than anything else. perhaps it is more interesting than beautiful
the bright flash on the basin may be from direct sunlight i'm not sure but the flash on the faucet/tap as well as the shelf is definitely from light reflected off the mirror. as i am shooting into the mirror the perspective is looking back toward the window wall
sunlight passes through the window, bounces off the mirror and hits the soap bottle where it is yet again reflected onto the tissue box.
reflected light from the mirror shines on the other side of the tissue box which in turn reflects it onto the wall whereas the tissues merely absorb the light.
shadows of both the bottle and the faucet/tap are cast back onto the wall beside the window where the light originally comes in.
i'm not sure what path the light takes to get to the glass with the golden rim but it is not getting direct sunlight nor light directly reflected from the mirror
here's some more detail around the faucet
(somewhat blurred because it is zoomed way in)
the wash basin is a chapter in itself as it is getting light from both sides. the mirror is to the right and the window to the left
there's a whole lot going on here- again you may or may not find it beautiful but i hope you at least think it is interesting