Mar 24 2008
Water and Light
Using water reflections in photography can inspire new ways of thinking and seeing. A few years ago my wife and I were traveling through our favorite part of Vermont and we stopped to take some pictures in a small town along the way.
The town was nice enough, but what got my attention more was the river running perpendicular to the main road. Looking upstream toward the fading afternoon light, I started to see images gracefully floating and shifting in the water. I spent some time looking at the way the light was playing on the surface of the water and then started to take pictures. I was taken by the abstract yet familiar quality of the images in my viewfinder. The first picture here is of the river with the clear, swirling reflection of a brick building under a clear blue sky. Because water is reflective, when you point your camera at it, it becomes a kind of transfer medium for the light which then passes into the camera’s lens. In this case, the water is bending the image (light) and I am selecting the interpretation that I prefer by clicking the shutter. To my eye, the pictures from the river are far more interesting than the other more conventional shots I took that day. By using the river’s reflective surface as a creative ally, I was able to create images which are more complex and almost textural and painterly. A polarizer filter is often essential in these endeavors, because you can decide how reflective the surface should be, and how much of what is under the water is seen, by just turning the filter a few degrees. Because I used a polarizer, I was able to modify what the lens saw so that there is simultaneously the striking reflection and the rocks and sand below. With this kind of photography, I find that I am really engaged in the subject. I am “in the moment” and time passes by quickly as I just try to capture the light. I begin to see light and dark and color, as opposed to subject and background.
This was taken just minutes later downstream. By then the wind had picked up and created a different surface look to the image - more staccato. By turning the polarizer a smidge, I was able to make the entire surface reflective, minimizing the transparency of the water, making for in this case, a stronger shot. These techniques create images which at first may be confusing because they challenge our preconceptions while providing a new perspective. I like the fact that these kinds of images are at once enjoyable to look at but also make you think differently about the world around you. Which is how we begin to really “see.”
