One of the greatest motivational factors in Street Photography for me is the element of surprise. When I say surprise I mean the discovery of a moment that makes me look twice,it may be something I have not noticed before or a happening that I could never of predicted or expected.

I was fortunate enough to find such a moment this weekend when I was framing up a shot which included British Union Flags, the original framing wasn't that great, it was a abstract composition that relied on cut off composition, then suddenly a figure entered the frame a breeze blew the flimsy flags into a almost horizontal position ensuring that the summer sunshine cast a unusual translucent colourful shadow onto the shirt of my unaware subject..

One of the main surprises of this shot for me is that the white parts of the Union Jack flag are projected as black in the shadow, as this area of the plastic flag is actually opaque. I would have expected white to be translucent ?

I must confess that I did not expect to pick up a contemporary looking shot at a medieval event celebrating 800 years of Magna Carta. ; I must also confess to being pleased with this effort and believe it demonstrates the value of really looking at our subjects with a open mind and an eye for detail.

I would imagine that most folk would not care one jot about the way this cheap plastic bunting transmits light in the right conditions but as a photographer shooting a English series the quality and properties of shadows from generic British bunting that are cast onto people matter to me and might well feature in other pictures in the future.