Thursday, March 31, 2011

Thursday Sparks - Reflections and Mirrors

Reflection

Photographers traditionally try to find the best ways to delete or avoid reflective surfaces in a photo, but lately I've gained an interest in photos not of the subject itself, but a reflection of that object in some other surface. Water, a mirror, a building, windows/glass or maybe even a car.

City Refraction, City Reflection


Mirror


Mirror mirror on the wall.


Chicago Bean with Kippah

(all above photos do not belong to me, click on the photo to see and comment on their work)

There are thousands of ways you could find a reflective surface that can become your subject. Correction: there are ways that you can find a reflection of your subject in a reflective surface. If you think about it, this can open up a whole (twice as much!) way that you can see your subject and capture them from a whole new different angle.

If you find yourself in a situation where you are feeling uncreative with the scene in front of you, turn around, look up or down and see if there's a way to capture what you're seeing in a reflection. This could been a reflection of just the subject itself, or your subject and the reflection at the same time.

Maybe you'll even plan ahead and take a reflective surface with you (like an antique hand mirror or a compact. Maybe a chrome hubcap or an iphone even. (this is where I fail, I kinda just roll with the punches).

So lately, I've been trying to remember to look around me and see what is going on behind me, below me etc. In fact, I've even noticed on the past few weddings that we've done, that Gene is looking at reflective surfaces in a new way. In fact, he's been shooting through thick or distorted glass to get a different look. (he's still learning, but very creative in some ways)

Here are some recent shots over the last year where I really liked how the reflection played into the photo itself.

02-02-kansascity7


06-11-abbie30



02-09-sarahTTD6


This photo is probably my very favorite reflection photo so far. See how we can tell a whole story, in a smaller space in one simple shot? Yeah, this will probably be the cover to my Rock the Dress album!



If you'd like to see other Thursday Sparks inspiration posts, click here.

1 comment:

Mama Mess said...

Lovely! I really like the sunset in the building, and of course the bride at the bottom is amazing as well!

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