My wife had ordered something from Sears and had to pick it up. While she was inside I took the dog for a short walk around the parking lot. It was around 4:00 pm on a very bright sunny day. The sun was low and the light was very contrasty. As I was walking back to the car I noticed a line of trees casting very dark shadows on the light wall behind them. The shadow of a single tree on the wall looked as if it would make a decent picture. A group of people walked up while I was getting ready to take my shot and decided to take some phone pictures of themselves (I’m not entirely sure why as it wasn’t a particularly scenic location. Maybe they noticed the shadows too). At first I was annoyed because they, probably without thinking, cast their own shadows on the very wall I was trying to photograph. I waited patiently taking a few pictures and eventually they moved on. I then took my picture of the shadow on the wall and that was that.

I always shoot RAW so I always have to work on pictures on the computer and as I was doing this I realized that I actually prefer the picture with their shadows (the one above) to my idea of just a tree shadow on a wall (the one below). I find it more visually interesting and I think the diagonal makes the composition stronger.

Funny how things turn out sometimes.