For the past several years, I have focused exclusively on creating fine art prints of water reflections. This interest grew out of photographing fall colors and discovering that, for me, the reflections of trees on a pond or stream were more interesting than the trees themselves. The more I experimented with the concept, the more intrigued I became with its possibilities.
The combination of the reflected object, the movement of the water, and the camera's shutter speed produces fascinating images which are ordinarily not visible to the human eye - the camera's ability to freeze a moment in time creates unique and beautiful imagery. With an almost unlimited variety of natural and manmade subject matter, the images have a wide range of shape, pattern, and color. Sometimes representational, sometimes not, they are often distorted by the water's movement. They appear to be more the product of a painter's brush than a photographer's camera, as the water becomes the canvas and the reflection the paint.
The process of creating a reflection image starts with finding a composition that looks promising - an interesting shape or pattern or an attractive combination of colors that catches my attention. I then capture multiple images of that composition using a digital camera. Each image is slightly different since the reflection continually changes as the water moves. As I focus on the composition, I also vary the camera's shutter speed in order to produce images with a range of sharpness/distortion. Later when I review the images on a computer screen, I edit (contrast, saturation, cropping, etc.) those that I like using Photoshop. Of the many images I start with, a few make it through the entire process and are added to my portfolio. The digital file is converted to a fine art print using an inkjet printer with archival pigment ink and paper.