Reflectionscapes

For me, reflectionscapes are a playful blend of landscape and nature photography with abstract art, where calm waters become the canvas to shapes, forms, and colors that create a composition without reference to the horizon. 

I think what draws the eye to these art prints lies in how the viewer easily recognizes the subject, generally a partially submerged tree limb.  They also quickly understand the reflection and the unusual mirror-finish to the lake’s surface.  …But after a moment or two, the eye finds the symmetries are slightly incongruent, which olds the eye a little longer.  As the viewer comprehends the scene, the varying distances of limb’s branches from the lens produces mirror reflections at varying depths into the composition.  Without additional outside references, it takes the eye a moment to fully comprehend the offset symmetries. 

How I came about the term Reflectionscapes

As a landscape photographer, I routinely reach for the ultra-wide-angle lens in order to capture a scene as well as the amazing skies overhead.  Many landscape photographers tend to employ longer lenses in order to dwell on a subject and isolate it from the background.  Still, even then the viewer understands the subject and the context of the surrounding background.  For some, this leads to a subgenre of intimate landscapes where a longer focal length or a macro lens creates a composition of a small subject without reference to the sky. 

The term also arises from a host of other types of scenes I’ve used before.  Although they are a little eclectic my audience seems to quickly grasp the subject. 

• Roadscapes:  Scenes that capture a happiness in driving to the top of a hill where the descending side reveals a long open road that stretches to the horizon
• Daytonscape:  Scenes from Dayton Ohio that capture not just the skyline but an interesting foreground under amazing skies
• Gardenscapes:   From a healthcare perspective, gardens hold a magic sense of placing the viewer at ease through a theory called biophilia
• Skyscapes:  We are surrounded by impressive parks where the lands hold many treasures, but there are evenings where the sky hold the eye with its amazing colors

Reflectionscapes:  The Eyesore that Became Fine Art

When I found this lake in 2018, it became apparent the park managers had recently cut down every tree along the shoreline.  From a tidy landscape photographer’s perspective, it was a hot mess of leaves, branches and limbs.  I understood it was part of their land management mission that created healthy fish habitats and eventually set the stage for the earth dam remediation. 

Through repeated visits, I found the twigs and branches decomposed leaving only the larger branches.  When park managers partially drained the lake for full access to the earth dam, the lower water levels revealed a potpourri of interesting reflections and compositions.  Two impromptu visits during colorful sunrises produced these images with an ethereal look.  With the dam repairs complete in fall of 2023, the lake returned to its previous level, submerging the tree remnants, ensuring these compositions are never seen again.