reflections
Sep 07, 2022
I love reflections. Maybe you do, too. There's something peaceful and even meditative about reflections in photographs - I'd guess that at a neurological level, this is rooted in symmetry, and maybe in the tendency of our brains to seek out order and patterns. But I'm a photographer (and a chemist), not a neuroscientist... so don't quote me on any of that.
And given my background in chemistry, I can neither confirm nor deny that technical considerations of symmetry might or might not occasionally induce a nightmarish flashback to torturous days in graduate school, so we're going to stick with the peaceful quality of reflected images here. ;)
So, have you ever taken an image with a reflection and... "reflected" it? (Thanks to the friend who suggested this to me last night.)
Okay, now we are going to get a bit technical. Imagine a dotted line through the horizontal centerline of the image above. Then, imagine flipping the image around that line, so the sky goes down and the ground goes up:
We've "reflected the reflection". (Note that this isn't a simple 180-degree rotation - that gives a distinctly different result, as we'll see below.)
Isn't it amazing how natural the image still feels? Even though the top of the image is now the water reflection of San Francisco de Asis, the image still feels harmonious. And, unless you knew what you were looking at, you might not immediately realize what you were seeing. That probably says that our brains automatically compensate for the reflection of the reflection - but it's a beautiful shift in perspective.
Further, I think it's interesting how rotating the image 180 degrees feels completely different:
This does add some dissonance - because the tree is no longer in its proper place on the right side of the image, the "rotation of the reflection" doesn't feel as natural as the "reflection of the reflection".
That's a lot of words. I could wax philosophical about the deeper meanings of harmony and dissonance, and if we're really going to go there, how our perspectives can change after encountering a storm... all of which are worth considering.
But instead, for now I'll just say, next time you're looking at a reflection after a storm, take a picture of it, and then look at it upside down. You might be surprised.
More next time ;)