Have fun with reflections
"With all the water around, the ponds and rivers should be pretty full so as photographers, what do we do with all this water? This usually means one thing, reflections. I love them and use them whenever I can. As well as ponds and rivers we have harbours and even large puddles – yes honestly! The first thing is to try and visualise the image you wish to produce. If you are trying to reflect part of a scene, a group of trees for example, then compose the picture placing the edge of the water and land around a third from the top or bottom of your shot. If you put it straight across the middle, it will end up looking like two pictures, one of the subject and one of the reflections, but try it for yourself and see which you prefer. The auto focus of your camera will often struggle with reflections hunting in and out to try and find a fix. So if you can, switch it off and focus manually, it’s really not that difficult. The other aspect picks up from previous articles, that is to get down low. If you do this you will lengthen the reflection which can add impact. Try and pick a day without much wind and finally, for a surreal look, just photograph the reflection without any actual subject. That often gets people guessing!
