The Landscape Photography Book

Mirror-Like Reflections

Characteristics of this type of shot: A glassy, mirror-like reflection of the scene.

Ingredients: To get that still, glassy water, you want to shoot first thing in the morning before the winds kick up. In most cases, an hour later and you’re too late—the water gets choppy and the reflection mostly goes away. Because the water is still, you can see through to the rocks in the shallow water in the foreground. If you wanted to see more of those rocks underwater, you could put a polarizing filter on your lens, which cuts the reflections big time, but in this case, our goal was to see the reflection. Compositionally, the horizon ...