To a landscape photographer, water is an almost magical substance. By turns, water is opaque, translucent, transparent, reflective. Movement of water shapes everything in the landscape around us, from ripples in the sand on the beach all the way to the shape of the trees.
I confess, I'm a reflection junkie. When I see a puddle, I don't think "Uh, oh. I better watch out, I might get my feet wet", I think "Gee, I wonder what cool stuff I can get reflected in that puddle".
| The interaction between the incoming waves and the waves rolling back out produces this scalloped patterning of the sand. When the shape of the beach let the water puddle over the scallops like this, it only took a few moments to find something nice to reflect in the surface of the water - the Douglas Fir trees just inland were nice and tall. |
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| Sometimes, there's nothing handy you can maneuver into the reflections. Sometimes, nice clouds come along just when you need them. |
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| I love the edges of tide pools, especially when the flow of water into or out of the tide pool slows down and the patterns in the sand contrast with the smooth surface of the water at the same time the water becomes a mirror. |
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| Sometimes, reflections appear to be images of things that are under the water. These clouds seemed to me to be IN the water, rather than just reflected on its surface. |
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| One of the delightful properties of reflections on the surface of water is that reflections which are dark allow the detail of what's under the water to show, but reflections of things that are bright (like the sky) tend to blot out those bottom details. |
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