Jungle Gym Silhouette

An ordinary photo can become far more impactful if you make it a silhouette.

Young climber is silhouetted among Jungle Gym shapes in Lowell, Ma. (© Michael Maher, The Lowell (Ma.) Sun).

The Photo:
While searching for an interesting photo late one afternoon, I was nervous I might not find anything before the sun went down, when it would be too dark to shoot outside. Luckily, I found a kid playing atop a Jungle Gym, but still had to turn this into an interesting photo. The setting sun provided the answer, as the sky was still brightly lit while the sun was out of sight. This meant I could easily shoot a silhouette of the kid and the bars on the Jungle Gym, because neither had direct light shining on them, leaving them dark, while the sky above provided a perfect bright background. I got low to the ground and shot the shapes of the Jungle Gym bar, with the boy perched on top, and the combination of the boy’s shape and lines of the equipment made a great silhouette picture.

3 Tips:
1) Common play activity can be made into a strong photo, through different angles and lighting.
2) If the subject is not well lit, shooting at a low angle against a bright sky can create an interesting and unusual silhouette effect.
3) Include repetition of angles and lines, with a person’s shape breaking up the repetition, to make your photos more compelling.