Autumnal Reflections - Ideas for autumn photography
"Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower" ~ Albert Camus (1913-1960). The beauty of autumn is something to behold, rich vibrant colours all competing with each yet forming such a harmonious blend, but it is also tinged with sadness as another year ticks away. Photographically it can be spectactular, dominated by oranges, reds and yellows all combining to produce a beautiful tapestry of colour, none more so than when we combine the rich autumnal colours with water. Water and autum colours when combined together have the potential for brilliant imagery that only requires a degree of imput from ourselves.
Surrender your thoughts and preconcieved ideas and think like a child, where everyday things are filled with wonder, mystery and magic. Slipping quietly into this mental approach will have an impact on your photography, bringing wonderment that allow you to create photography that resonate with both beauty and harmony.
On a bright autumnal day head off for a favoured place that has the essential ingredients - autumn colour and water, it could be a lake, pond or stream. We are looking to create stunning images by combining both autumn colour and water. It matters little if the water is moving or flat calm but the effect it will have on the reflected colour will vary greatly. With calm water the reflection can be almost mirror like giving a true inverted copy below of the original above. However, moving water will transform the reflection into an almost abstract image as the multitude of colours are mixed in swirls and lines creating a blended patchwork of beautiful autumn colour.
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After looking around and selecting a suitable viewpoint that gives a pleasing composition and places our key elements, colour and water, firmly within the camera viewfinder where simplicity of composition is often the best approach. A sturdy tripod is essential for this kind of photography, indeed all your photography will improve when a tripod is used. A view that reflects evenly and subtly off the water is preferable to one that has lots of pinpoints of highlight or "hotspots", we are looking to maximise the benefit of the relection and do not need the "hotspot" distraction.
Look to compose your image with a solitary leaf or rock in the water, this gives something for the eye to rest upon and relate to. Then look for movement and pattern within the water, it is often this juxta position of a static object and movement that adds impact and an extra dimension providing an interesting relationship within the photograph.
Earlier mention of the importance of using a tripod is reinforced if we choose to use a long exposure to really empahsise this movement within our composition, hand holding is really pointless and cannot give the desired effect. Selecting a shutter speed slower than 0.5 second will allow water to flow through the scene creating "movement" within your photography. This flowing water will create swirls and striations in a myriad of reflected autumn colour, the final effect is often hard to predict though much less so with digital photography as with have the preview screen to visually assess our efforts. Experimentaion with shutter speed / aperture combinations is often needed to create the effect we desire.
When selecting your subject / composition do not restrict yourself to working from head height, get down low or conversely up high to create a different viewpoint. It changes the angle of view and appearance of the reflection. In doing this you will also see things in nature that you had simply forgotten about or for that matter did not even knew existed. It also provides the viewer of your images a different viewpoint that makes your photography work stand out from the crowd.
When working with water it is also a good idea to use a polarising filter to saturate the autumn colours further and remove some of the glare. Use it subtly however, as we do not want to completely remove the effect of the reflection. Artistically filters can have a great impact on your photography and a polariser is just about the only filter that cannot these days be recreated on the computer.
Looking for new ways of seeing and photographing the world around us is one of the biggest challenges that we as photographers face, be different, experiment, push the boundary and accept no limits. Only when we do this will we create strong and meaningful imagery.
© Phil McDermott ~ September 2008
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Article by Phil McDermott - Commercial, stock and wedding photographer.
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