Practical Photography Series # 5 : Reflections

Reflection...it's like the inseparable shadow that used to follow me wherever I go.

I remember a story about a boy getting pestered with his shadow. Also the story of a lion who jumped off the river after seeing his own reflection, assuming that its his enemy. Or how about the wicked stepmother in a fairy tale who used to say, "Mirror, mirror on th wall..who's the fairest of them all?"

I thank the inventor who infused liquid mercury on a clear flat glass of desired shapes and sizes to make mirrors. We can now see what is our outer appearance.

Aside from the mirror at our home's salon, we can use the reflection on the water to capture something unique on our subjects.

Most of the photographer's subject on panoramic views involved almost all the elements of this world:

1. water -reflects the color of the sky; can be a river, lakes or sea.
2. land - can be mountains, hills or fields that is used as a barometer in determining the rules of third in a photo shoot.
3. atmosphere -the huge, vacuum part that consists of clouds, unseen air and other elements
4. light - without it, I cannot appreciate the beauty of nature or the subject I am shooting.

I have this sunglasses that I used one night for a random shots while passing the time and watching television.

Well, that gave me an idea to go out the house, next day and used it to reflect some views, after the afternoon rain.

I cannot focus much my camera, without seeing myself being reflected at the sunglasses. I've tilted it then did a series of shots and uploaded the album on my desktop computer. Then edited some of it for posting here on my photography series.

Since, it's rainy season here in the Philippines, I had to appreciate the reflection of the sky on the cultivated rice fields.

I did series of shots at different locations in the village, trying to capture the right ones, while avoiding the glare of the sun's reflection. It's tedious I admit; because I am also avoiding the glare being reflected on my eyeglasses (for astigmatism). I just did a series of shots then went home.

I cannot edit those reflections to make it clearer because the tint, color or saturation of the background will suffer. So, a point-shoot strategy was my main target.

And I nailed some good shots!

Reflection shots are inevitable especially when you're traveling on waters.

In my seafaring days, I've taken photos from different countries where we have our ports of call or destinations (for loading and discharging of cargoes).

Unfortunately, I cannot open my external drive and the alarm sound warned me that the computer cannot detect my connection. It's such a loss.

So, if I were you, I'll still have backups on recordable CDs or DVDs that I've done for some memorable pictures.

I'm still rummaging my CD/DVD wallets to choose pictures that I can include here for updates.