There's a lot of detail in this photograph thanks to the dynamic range of film. The detail in both the shadows and highlights hints at the heat of the day and makes us feel the cool of a snooze in the shade. I don't mind the blown-out highlights that ring the shadow of the canopy of the central tree. They also speak of heat.

What I like most about the photo is the shape of this shadow, the way it falls around the small hill that supports the tree. It reveals the shape of the hillock, which reveals how the tree stands at its centre, which reveals the special little refuge this sleeping pair have found for their siesta.

I don't often use such a symmetrical, centre-focused composition. But here it works. I love how my eye races along the ground up the centre of the hillock to the sleepers, up the tree trunk, around the tree's canopy, then back down to the edges of the canopy's shadow on the ground.

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19.03

2010.08   Vancouver   Olympus 35RC Ilford XP2