it's hard to resist a good reflection

This past Saturday morning, I headed over to Sawhill Ponds outside Boulder for sunrise. There was nothing terribly exciting going on, but I do like the above image from that morning’s shooting. It’s hard to resist a good reflection.

Before I started to get serious about photography, I have to admit that I don’t remember paying any attention whatsoever to reflections. Now I look for them all the time. Anytime I’m out & about and there’s water, I check it for reflections of the landscape or sky. Big lakes, small ponds, calm pools in streams, even rain puddles… they’re all worth checking out.

The best time to get reflection shots is, big surprise, the usual magic hours around sunrise & sunset. This is not only when you will have the best chance of finding calm water, but it will also allow you to get shots without direct sunlight hitting the water’s surface.

If the sun is up and the landscape is illuminated by direct light, but the water is still in shadow, you’ll need to think about using a graduated neutral density filter. But if you're shooting multiple exposures for HDR or for merging two exposures in Photoshop, then you’ll just need to bracket a shot (for HDR) or make two exposures for the high contrast/low contrast sections of the scene (for merging in Photoshop).

If shooting a reflection in shallow water, it’s a good idea to leave your polarizing filter off the camera since it will tend to wash out the reflection and instead allow you to see whatever is under the water’s surface (gravel, rocks, grass, mud, etc…).

Reflections are worth searching out since a good reflection can add an extra dimension to an already interesting scene (the Chapel on the Rock image), make something interesting of an otherwise dull scene (the Lake Irene shot, below on the left), allow for a different interpretation of a scene (the rock and reflection of the Indian Peaks, below on the right). Even if the landscape itself is boring, some heavenly light in the sky or some captivating clouds can make for a lovely reflection shot.

So whenever you’re out & about and find some water, check it out for reflections because they make for beautiful photos and because, hey, let’s be honest, very few things say, “I’m a serious landscape photographer” like a cool reflection shot :-)

Thanks for reading about stuff I’ve photographed. ~Rich