Shoot Shootout an image that conjures up the essence of Stratford

Challenge 2 Natalia Kazemzadeh

Next, we asked our participants to shoot an image that would sum up the spirit of Stratford. This was an open-ended ‘wild card’ challenge, so was fully open to interpretation.

Natalia eventually homed in on the famous statue of the bard by Lord Ronald Gower in Bancroft Gardens, in front of the imposing Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre.

“I was wandering around the statue, looking at it from different angles. The colours of the sky were changing and there was a crescent moon; I thought it would make a good composition. I went with the angle where the statue seems grand, as if Shakespeare was overlooking the city. “These were very low-light conditions, which I personally find quite tricky, so

I used Aperture Priority mode rather than full Manual mode.

“As I wanted a close-up of the statue and also wanted to experiment with the balance between the sizes of the statue and the moon, I used my zoom lens. Because of the low light, I selected a wide aperture.”

Expert opinion

Natalia reacted resourcefully to the fading light levels, and we love her silhouette of Shakespeare. Including the moon in the frame adds interest to an otherwise empty sky, lending an air of magic to the twilight scene. If we were being picky, we might like to see Natalia’s ISO (and shutter speed) increased, avoiding camera shake for a sharper outline of the statue.