Reflections from glass and water have been a major focus of my photography for the past several years. In addition to this portfolio they are a key part of the Through the Looking Glass series, and one series of reflections is also included in the Time portfolio on this web site. Whether it comes from water in the midst of nature or from the windows of a building in the centre of a city, a reflection has the power to transform its surroundings, providing a new view of familiar objects, and sometimes leading to unexpected associations. The resulting photographs may be at once familiar from a distance and unfamiliar close up; at other times the result may be so different from what might be expected that it is hard to believe that it is a photograph at all. Although Nature is an important and continuing inspiration for my photography, the majority of the photographs in this portfolio were taken in an urban setting. I am particularly drawn to reflections of and from man-made objects because of the striking contrasts between the rigid geometrical character of the objects and the free-flowing forms of the resulting reflections. I find it ironic and somewhat comforting that although modern technology produces very flat, rectangular windows, the reflections from these windows defy this geometry with their often extraordinary, baroque forms. One of the images here (Urban Dreams #3) only appears to include reflections (For any of the named images on this page, click on the names to see the image in the space at the bottom of the page - some scrolling may be required). This image plays with the notions of reflection and transparency through the use of digital manipulation and the combination of two different photographs. Steps in Space (a group of 4 photographs) is an examination of how the reflected image changes with camera position, both because of the new vantage point, and also because of the new way that the reflection transforms the image. Digital Manipulation There is a traditional expectation that an exhibition of photography will present views of the world as seen through the eye of the camera. In this digital age such an expectation is confounded by the possibilities of digital manipulation of the image before it reaches its final form. This is certainly an issue with the images here, where a majority of the original photographs have been manipulated in the computer. It may be an additional obstacle for viewers of these images that many of the original, unaltered photographs are themselves quite abstract in appearance. In general terms, the 'why' of my image manipulations is easily stated: to present to the viewer more forcefully those features of 'what was before the camera' that I consider important, that made me take the picture. It is invariably true that the most baffling and ‘unphotographic-like' features of these images were present in the original photographs - none of them were ‘created' in the computer. I thought it might help viewers better relate to these images if I were to give a few examples of what has been done to the photographs, and why. Some photographs were left unchanged, aside from the possible application of standard corrections (adjustment of brightness, colour, contrast, cropping, rotation, etc.). This is true of Mallard at Tobermory, Sails and Masts, Gore Bay, Summer Reeds on Ice Lake, and Harbourfront Living. All of the photographs of reflections from buildings shown here have had the perspective altered to 'square up' the windows, thus heightening the contrast between their rectangular shape and the exotic reflections they produce. The effect of this change is illustrated in the example below. The Urban Dream image has already been mentioned. What was done there will be left unexplained, since part of the fun of that work is for each viewer to come up with his/her own interpretation of the image. With London Adobe I was interested in completely isolating the reflection of the building by removing all trace of the windows responsible for the reflection. In addition to squaring up the windows by changing the perspective, I also digitally removed all the window frames. Because the removal of the window frames left striations in the sky, the sky was replaced by a colour gradient that matched as nearly as possible the original tones of the sky. However, having gone that far, I also took the opportunity to heighten the impact of the image by changing the colour of the sky to be close to complementary to the colour of the reflected building. As can be seen from comparing the before and after images below, some additional cropping of the image was also done to produce the final image.

Last modified 2009.12.12