As humans it's only natural that we like to look at ourselves. Anyone who spends a majority of their time behind a lens capturing moments and memories knows all too well that it's rare to end up in a photo.
Put any camera in the hands of my husband and no good photo of me will result.
AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO CARES IF PEOPLE LOOK GOOD IN PHOTOS?
Have you ever wondered that too?
Shortly after getting my first SLR I began to notice all of the shiny surfaces all around me and how fun it was to take pictures of them. So many times we end up reflecting in shiny surfaces on accident, so I started to wonder, what would happen if I ended up in them ON PURPOSE?
Behold, my first reflection photo:
Can you see me up there on the wall? There would have been no other way to show the magnitude of the parade, the precarious spot I chose to sit in and my little family down below had it not been for this mirror on the other side of the driveway.
In the next photo I was out taking pictures with two of my friends, had we asked someone on the street to take our picture only one of us would have had a copy (who knows what we would have gotten) and one of us would have been without a camera for the photo (the whole point was that we all had our cameras.) We were lucky enough to find a black store window to serve as our reflective surface.
I love this photo. It is one magnificent moment frozen.
I was at a football game with my husband when I noticed this opportunity:
He was a complete stranger but he had shiny sunglasses and I needed a picture of the Big House field reflected in them. He was more than happy to indulge me and I'm so glad I asked. It tells a story without saying a word.
Reflections are everywhere, in varying degrees of awesome and uniqueness.
The two rules?
1. No flash.
2. Make sure you're focused on yourself or whatever you want to be reflected (especially at a low aperture.) Otherwise it's just another blurry picture. And who needs more of those? NOT ME!
Fun, huh?
When she's not snapping photos, Casey hangs out and eats oreos at moosh in indy.
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As someone who is perfecting her pregnancy belly shots by shooting only in the bathroom mirror (because my husband NEVER takes good pictures of me, either), this is very cool to see. I never considered branching out beyond the bathroom. I may need to hunt down a guy with shiny sunglasses for this week's belly shot.
What a brilliant post!!
Love it! You should check out Graham Nash's work – he had the same idea but executed it differently.
I have a fun one of me reflected in a Christmas tree ornament! It was totally by accident. I was trying to take close ups of some of our ornaments when I saw my reflection… Love it!
I would venture to say that you've developed the "Casey Special".
Beautiful Casey. Thanks for the inspiration!
Yes, indeed, reflections are my favorite selfy-pees!
Great article!
Great points, Casey! When Mike gets the camera, we end up with pictures of my behind. Or me looking REALLY surprised. Because I usually am.
I love your reflection pictures and also feel like there is a great unexpected element in them. On our "Dells Ducks Tour" I tried almost desperatly to find a non-shaky moment to get a picture of my son through the rear view mirror with the real look of excitement on his face, not the big cheesy smile he pastes on for pictures. I kinda sorta got one – nothing to brag about – but I'm watching for the opportunity to present itself again.
I have so many pictures of myself in reflective pictures. As a photographer it is hard to get others to take pictures of you.
Yeah, no-one ever takes photos of me. I used to just let it go, and then for years there were no photos of me! Now I take buttloads of myself to make up for it.
But any type of reflection shot? I'm a sucker for them – they are so cooooool!
What a great idea! I am working on getting back into scrapbooking and this would make an amazing spread! Thanks for sharing!