I Photograph Reflections

Sometimes you come into an environment and it just doesn't seem to have a good angle or the scene is just flat.  That's when I hunt reflections, or silhouettes or even shadows.  Reflections are an interesting way to incorporate the scene and the exterior of it as well.

In this image, there were several gentlemen surveying a location for a new radio station being built in a church in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  All in all the scene was pretty boring, but on the exterior wall there was a window which gave some pop to the guys in the room.  Between the room I was in and the one they were in was a large piece of glass, that's where you see me.  I love the layers in this particular image. I consider it a self portrait.  Had I changed the framing a little I could have got a great image without me in it.

We were shooting inside a coffee house in Santa Cruz, CA for this image of the band Wavorly.  The inside was nice but shooting into that window didn't allow me much more than silhouettes and that isn't what I wanted.  So I composed them and stepped out of the shop to take this.  Its one of my favorite images.  I love the tone and the color saturation that came out of it.  That's one of the interesting things about shooting reflections, if the glass is tinted you can get really great color shifts or any number of other unexpected beautiful things can happen.

Shooting reflections doesn't mean that you have to shoot into glass either.  reflections are all around you, rain puddles, car paint, the obvious...mirrors.  Use your imagination.  This image of From Indian Lakes was really just a grab shot.  The shoot was basically over, they were standing by that pillar in the right side of the frame and I looked down.  There they were in the water...so I took it.  I like it and so did they.  Could it be better if it was more planned?  Yes.  Is it OK like it is?  Yes.

Try using this technique with photographs of your children for an entirely new perspective.  If you want to check out a master of reflection photographs, give Matt Mallams a look.  Thanks for reading.