21-OCT-2006
Reflecting the past, Bodie State Historic Park, California, 2006
The Wheaton and Hollis Hotel locked these doors forever more than sixty years ago when Bodie, a gold mining site in the Sierra Nevada mountains, faded into a ghost town. Today, the glass in these doors reflects the Boone General Store that stands just across Main Street. The slightest shift in vantage point changes the pattern of these surreal reflections, letting me paint virtually any kind of picture I want upon those wonderfully warped glass doors. The doors stand under a canopy that shields them from stray light, offering a consistently sharp and saturated series of reflections. (It only works in the morning, however, when the sun illuminates the store across the street.) I choose to bend the reflections into a series of geometric angles, and waited for a visitor to stop in front of the General Store across the street. I integrate her into the design itself. In doing so, I am immersing her into the past, which is exactly what a visit to the historic Bodie ghost town in supposed to do.
20-OCT-2006
Golden creek, near June Lake, California, 2006
It is light that makes reflections work. The light on the brilliantly yellow fall foliage on the opposite bank of this creek becomes diffused and softly blurred when reflected in the water. I chose not to photograph the reflection by itself. Rather, I used the shadowed stump of a long departed tree as a focal point to draw the eye and anchor the composition, surrounding it with rippling golden water. It becomes an impressionistic image, very much in the style of an impressionist painting.
20-OCT-2006
Tufa at dawn, Mono Lake, California, 2006
Jagged towers of limestone, known as tufa, which are formed over the centuries by combining salty lake water and freshwater springs, give Mono Lake its distinctive character. Instead of photographing the tufa tower itself, I chose to shoot this golden reflection of a tufa tower at dawn, juxtaposing it against the tip of another tufa tower protruding from the lake bed. It is the contrast between solid and reflective tufa that makes this image convey the nature of Mono Lake.
08-AUG-2006
Metlife Tower, Madison Square Park, New York City, 2006
The 700 foot high Metlife tower was the tallest building in the world when it was built in 1909. Modeled on the campanile on St. Mark’s Square in Venice, the tower would hold that title for only four years, yet it still remains a landmark alongside of New York’s Madison Square Park. I catch its crumpling, twisted reflection in the rippling waters of the square’s fountain, creating a surreal vision of a historic building. It seems to be shrinking before our eyes –an apt metaphor for a building that once was the tallest of them all but currently ranks as the 15th highest building in New York City.
07-AUG-2006
Rush hour oasis, 23rd Street, New York City, 2006
A reflection helps me create this layered image of a woman having a cup of coffee and reading a document while ignoring the chaos of rush hour swirling around her. A large window reflects a subway entrance, with bikes locked to its cage-like bars. The reflected bars metaphorically lock the woman into a routine she repeats five days a week. The window also reflects a blurred taxi and scurrying pedestrians, merging them into the woman, who never looks up from her reading. She lives in a maelstrom and somehow accepts it as normalcy.
10-JUN-2006
Tide pool, Otter Crest Beach, DePoe Bay, Oregon, 2006
I caught this photographer’s reflection in a tide pool. In such a place as this, potential photographs are literally underfoot at all times. The backlighted subject becomes an abstract symbol of the quest for images. The v-shape of the folded tripod and arm echoes the v-shape of the tide pool itself. Glowing sea creatures merge into the silhouette of the photographer, adding a surreal tone to the character of the picture.
12-JUN-2006
Winecasks, Girardet Winery, Roseburg, Oregon, 2006
I made this image of the Girardet wine casks with the help of a reflection on shiny aluminum winemaking machinery. (I can barely make out the very slim photographer just to the left of center.) The gold color adds warmth, while the reflection squeezes multiple casks into a single image. The round door on the aluminum machinery echoes the round casks and links the dual subjects within a single plane.
15-MAR-2006
Bank, Beijing, China, 2006
The glass facade of a Beijing bank reflects the energy of the busy Wangfujing shopping area. When shooting reflections, it is important to keep in mind the purpose of the picture, rather than just shoot incongruous forms for the sake of form itself. This image expresses the duality of Beijing itself. It is a dynamic metropolis, bursting at the seams with energy. Yet it is also chaotic. This reflection caught elements of both. Banks such as this one provide resources to fuel Beijing’s boom, providing context for the image.
31-MAR-2006
Pond, Shuhe, China, 2006
There is a sense of tranquility and mystery in this reflected image. The graceful old home provides Chinese identity, while the rich colors of reflected trees and flowers tell us that spring has come to Yunnan Province. A rippled circle at the bottom of the image adds context.
31-MAR-2006
Serenity, Lijiang, China, 2006
The elegantly landscape garden surrounding our hotel provides subject matter, but it’s the early morning light that gives the image its serene beauty. I chose to meld reality to reflection here, matching the repeating diagonals of the rocky shore of this pond to the diagonal in the reflected hotel building. Reality and reflection overlap, making the building seem to be almost transparent.
10-FEB-2006
The Old Blue Truck, Barstow, California, 2006
With rust covering much of its blue finish, this truck has made its last delivery. It now is one of a number of historic vehicles in the collection at Tom's Welding and Machine Shop in Barstow, California. Its window reflects just a few of the collection's other items, including an old farm wagon, ladders, and gasoline signage. The reflection is the focal point of picture. It is lighter, and more detailed, and provides a context for what is probably this truck’s last stop.
30-OCT-2005
Primary Colors, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 2005
A small fountain in the courtyard of a San Miguel inn plays back the colors of late afternoon in Central Mexico. I draw heavily on texture created by the ripples to give the
liquid a tactile quality. We can see these ripples in both the fountain’s bowl and in the pool that surrounds it. I’ve used a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second to extend the droplets of water flowing from the bowl. But the key to the success of this reflection is the rich, deep quality of the color. The air of San Miguel is clear, the altitude is high, and the color of the sky is a deep and pure blue late in the afternoon. The basin of the fountain is blue as well. The yellow comes from the newly painted walls of one of the inn’s casitas. The shape of the casita itself is strongly abstracted by the rippling waters that reflect it back to us. Both yellow and blue are primary colors to begin with, and when they are shot in warm late afternoon light at 6,000 feet to appear as textured reflections, their effect can be powerful.