Kodak Shadow Moment Explained

For the last Shadow Shot Sunday, I posted an image without commentary, and left the interpretation up to the reader. My wife Mary thought the photo had religious overtones, such as Jesus kneeling before John the Baptist. Interestingly, W.Z. Snyder, #167 Dad, also came up with a religious interpretation-- doubting Thomas kneeling before Jesus. Dr. Renzulli saw the image as reflecting "...the growing conflict between the mundane routine of radiology and the obvious pent up creativity that is demanding its own voice," and there is more than a little truth in that interpretation.

Others leaving comments said they could think of stories, but didn't give specifics.


Maybe it's a bit of a spoiler, but here is an annotated version of the picture. The Kodak Duaflex III is an old twin lens reflex (TLR) camera, meant to take square pictures on 620 film, and the camera normally would be held in front of the photographer at waist level. Since I had it loaded with 35mm film, I had to turn it sideways and hold it as pictured to get the proper orientation of the shadows on the film, thus explaining the appearance of an arm raised in a gesture of blessing. It just so happened that my legs were positioned to make it look like I was wearing a robe (I rarely wear a robe in public these days), and the dog happened to turn her head to make her shadow look like a kneeling human. Some might cite this an example of what Carl Jung called synchronicity.

Now you know...the rest of the story.

Good day.