Using reflections in photography can lead to some amazing effects and beautiful images. Using water, windows, mirrors or any sort of reflective surface can change an image into a work of art. The wonderful thing about using reflections when taking photos is that they can completely alter the image from something fairly straightforward to something richer or abstract or otherwise more artistic. Sometimes reflections can be annoying and certainly interesting. But creativity depends on the photographer being able to see things differently, rather than seeing only one part of a larger whole. And is this not what we should be looking for in own reflections of life? Seeing differently, accepting differently, and seeing myself reflected in others, as they are reflected in me. We often times distort our own reality though thoughts, feelings, perceptions and images that our mind controls.
Jesuit priest Jean Pierre Caussade believed seeing not with our physical eyes but with and inner vision that looks at the world in a way that sees "self" in context. This type of vision is often confused with "thinking", but the two are distinct. Often thinking too much about things can result in an inability to "see" them." I begin to see and object when I cease to understand it," noted Thoreau. And Chinese Zen master Shen Hui suggested that: "The true seeing is when there is no seeing." So as I look at this beautiful reflected image of our state capitol building, can I stop for a moment and see distortions of myself that have parts of something richer, something abstract, something annoying, something pleasant, and not think to much and accept the reflective essence that may or not distort my reality. Seeing these reflections and reflected light that shines in, through, around and close to me, and remembering true seeing is not thinking, but more about absorbing the reflection.
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