reflections

Perceptions of Memory: My Look Back at One Film Photo Every Day of 2022

It begins in a specific place, and on a specific date: a country auction. March 26th. While I’m holding up a camera and looking for my one daily photograph, an Amish man swings the mirror he’s offering up to the highest bidder and briefly —for no more than a second— shows me… myself. And there it was: suddenly, I was Narcissus on the plains.

The Photos of 9/11, Twenty Years Later

Prior to the advent of social media and smartphones, and on the cusp of the shift to digital photography, the world witnessed September 11, 2001. Visually captured in a way that no single event had been documented before, 9/11 has been seared into our collective consciousness.

What Every Photographer Needs to Know About Reflections

Reflections are the sole reason we’re able to see objects. An object that absorbs 100% of the light is invisible. Fortunately, we don’t encounter these in our daily lives. Any lighting-conscious photographer would be aware of the fact that their light positioning directly influences reflection and hence the viewer experience.

Great Reads in Photography: March 7, 2021

Every Sunday, we bring together a collection of easy-reading articles from analytical to how-to to photo-features in no particular order that did not make our regular daily coverage. Enjoy!

Photo Idea: How to Capture Creative Reflection Portraits

Capturing cool reflection portraits might seem like a breeze—you just put someone behind some glass and go ham, right? But as photographer Matt Granger explains in this tutorial, even a basic understanding of the "key variables" involved can open up more options for you.

Photographer Uses DIY Reflecting Pool to Capture Beautiful Flower Photos

Landscape photographer Lewis Carlyle was recently trying to figure out a photo project to do at home, when he came up with a totally unique, never-before-tried idea: close-up photos of flowers. Okay, fine, it's not exactly revolutionary, but he did manage to put an interesting twist on the concept and create some beautiful images in the process.

This Photographer Put a Giant Mirror In a Salt Flat

Australian photographer Murray Fredericks has spent years visiting and photographing the salt flats at Lake Eyre, the lowest point in Australia. For his latest project, titled Vanity, Fredericks brought a giant mirror and created gorgeous, abstract landscape photos at dawn, dusk, and night.

Photographer Captures the Milky Way Mirrored on Flooded Salt Flats

The Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is the world's largest salt flat, and a dream location for landscape photographers hunting for special shots. Russian photographer Daniel Kordan visited the salt flat at night and captured a set of photos showing the Milky Way being reflected by the flooded plain.

Photographing Tim Duncan, the Best Power Forward of All Time

I covered Tim Duncan during countless games, including their three NBA Finals titles in 1999, 2003, and 2005. I probably took thousands of photos of him, but on the occasion of his quiet retirement, I picked a few out just for this article.

Walker Evans’ Reflections on His Great Depression Photos

The great American photographer Walker Evans is best known for his stark photos that document the years of the Great Depression in the US. In the 4.5-minute video above, produced many years afterwards, Evans looks back on his photography and offers a glimpse into his mindset at the time he shot it.

How to Shoot Through Glass Without Unwanted Reflections

My name is Justin Tierney, and I'm a time-lapse photographer based in Japan. The opening section of my latest time-lapse project features nocturnal Japanese cityscapes. All the shots were captured from high hotel windows or observation towers around Tokyo. In this short article I share how I was able to create these shots without unwanted window reflections.

On Feeling Inadequate as a Photographer

My life is pretty good. I live in one of the coolest cities in the world (Toronto), I have a lot of close friends, good family, an amazing girlfriend who loves me, and I’m beginning to think my photography business is sustainable after almost five years of hard work. I’m happier now than I have been for most of my life. But here’s the reality: I am just a blue collar photographer.

Wow: This Algorithm Can Separate Reflections from Photographs

Researchers at Google and MIT have figured out a way to automatically remove reflections and obstructions from photographs, and their latest demo of the technology is amazing.

Check out the 6.5-minute video above for an explanation of the algorithm and some examples of what it can do.

Beautiful and Disorienting Photographs of Reflections on Sandy Beaches

Back in June, New York City-based photographer Htet T San visited a number of beaches around The Big Apple, mainly on Coney Island and at Brighton Beach. Her goal was to capture the concept of "the complete nothingness" through reflections of beachgoers seen in the wet sands. The resulting images form a series she calls "The Frail Second."

Reflections: Portraits of the Elderly Seeing Their Younger Selves

When my grandmother was suddenly stricken by a massive stroke, my family had to make the heartbreaking decision to let her go. The doctor told us that even if she were to survive it, she wouldn’t be the person we knew. I remember thinking at that moment, 'if you could only know what kind of woman she is!' We all knew that it wouldn’t be fair to her to bring her back in a way that wouldn’t allow her to live her life her way.

10 Ways Photography Can Change Your Life (It Changed Mine)

I have always been interested in photos. When I was younger, I used to pore through drawers of photos and photo albums that my parents made, looking at them, rearranging them and remembering the moment that they were taken.

I loved those photos. When I went to college and returned home for holidays and summers, I would always return to those drawers, collect the photos to view the new ones and to catch up on everything that had happened while I was away. When I looked at the pictures, I tried to imagine myself there and what I would have been doing at that time.

How Many Photos Are Too Many Photos?

Last week was full of horror, disbelief and touching compassion. It was also a week driven by photographs and discussion about photography. From the iconic photo by Boston Globe’s John Tlumacki on the cover of Sports Illustrated, to the hundreds of citizen photos turned in to the FBI, the story and the events that followed were driven by photography.