Reflections my photos, my words

There’s one thing that will always get my attention whenever I’m carrying my camera while hiking through a nature area or walking around a city.

That’s a scene with a reflection, the subject of my featured gallery for September.

I admit it. I’m a sucker for any type of reflections when I’m looking for photo possibilities. And there are a lot of types of reflections, a lot of surfaces that can create reflections and a lot of ways they can work when creating interesting photographs.

Washington Monument and Reflecting Pool, Washington, D.C.

There are reflections in water, which can be still, creating a mirror effect, or rippling, creating a distorted or abstract reflection.

There are reflections in glass, marble or other shiny surfaces. Again, this can create a mirror or abstract effect depending on the amount of distortion created by the surface.

Mallards on ice-covered lake, Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.

Reflections in glass windows can be particularly interesting because the window can show both the reflected object as well as objects inside the window, creating a dual view — sort of a picture within a picture.

Marble monuments, like the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., can create similar dual views, with reflected objects visible around the details in the marble.

Buildings in the World Finance Center are reflected in the surface of a neighboring building in New York City.

That’s why composition is so important when capturing reflections.

Some reflection photos work best when composed for symmetry, like my photo of the Washington Monument.

Skyline reflected in the Cloud Gate sculpture on AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park, Chicago.

But at times it’s better if the reflection complements the image, playing an important — but secondary — role, like in my photo of geese floating on a pond on a quiet fall morning.

And sometimes the reflection itself is the subject of the photo, like in my photo of buildings reflected by glass windows in One World Trade Center in New York City or the distorted reflection of buildings in the metal surface of the Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

Fall colors reflecting around Canada Geese in lake, Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.

At times it is best to include both the object being reflected and the reflection itself in the photo. This is important in wildlife photos, in my opinion. Just showing the reflection — an upside down bird, for instance — doesn’t hold my attention. The bird and its surroundings reflected by water can be eye catching.

But some scenes are more intriguing if the object being reflected is excluded from the composition. This is especially true when photographing reflections in puddles of water. The contrast between the surface surrounding the puddle and the scene reflected by the puddle can create an interesting visual dynamic.

Fall leaves reflected in the pond in Central Park, New York City.

I’ve discussed subjects, surfaces and composition, all important elements of an interesting reflection photograph. But none of those matter if you can’t get your camera to capture the colors and detail that your eye sees — and your mind interprets — through the viewfinder.

Visitors are reflected in the Vietnam Memorial wall, Washington, D.C.

That’s where the photo-technical details become important.

As with most photographs, lighting is important when capturing reflections. There must be sufficient lighting on the subject — a building, a group of colorful autumn trees, a heron wading in a wetlands — to enable it to create a well-defined reflection. The lighting is often natural (sunlight), but bright artificial lighting can help create nice reflections in night photos. Without proper lighting the reflection can become an ill-defined shadow.

City Hall reflected by fountain water, Dilworth Park, Philadelphia.

Proper focus — or more accurately, proper depth of field or depth of focus — is critical. Focusing on the object being reflected or focusing on the surface showing the reflection won’t necessarily guarantee that the important elements in the composition will be sharp. Remember, there are two distances to consider for focus or depth of field: The distance from the camera to the reflective surface and the distance from the reflective surface to the object being reflected.

This may not matter if the object is a heron wading in water because the bird and the reflective surface are within feet of each other. But if the object is a puddle reflecting a building or windows in a glass building reflecting their surroundings, the object and the reflective surface may be hundreds of feet apart. That’s why I “stop down” — reducing the camera’s aperture size by using a higher-numbered f-stop — to increase the depth of field when photographing reflections.

A reflection of the Washington Monument is seen behind names on the Vietnam Memorial wall, Washington, D.C.

Subjects, surfaces, composition, lighting, depth of field … it seems like a lot to remember to get one photograph. But when you know your equipment and take a lot of photos it becomes automatic.

Click on a photo to see a larger version.