The eyes have it. They see all. The know all. They reflect all, too.

And in this particular case the reflection in my eye, er, the owl’s eye, would be me. And the owl would be a rescue Western Screech Owl, handled by the wonderful folks at Talking Talons (a group who helps winged critters in need). If you look closely in the eyes (but not too closely, for you can easily get lost in those eyes), you can see myself and a bit of my camera grabbing this close up. I will freely admit that perhaps I was a little too close, really, but I just had to have this macro shot of an owl’s eye. Later, when I looked at it, I realized I had a bit more in that eye than I intended.

The eyes reflect all. They know all. They see all. They have it.

Reflection of Fall, originally uploaded by ifringe.

This particular subject has vexed me for the longest time. It has sat there, taunting me, calling to me, daring me to take a picture of it that looks even somewhat reasonable. Every time I pass by it I know, deep in my bones, that a picture lurks there, but I cannot get it. I go home thinking to myself “what if…what if…”

What is this object? Oddly, it’s a barn. Yes, a barn. And old barn to be sure (and because it is old it has a lot of experience with photographer types. It’s a old wily barn). A barn that sits there and simply refuses to be photographed in any meaningful fashion. The problem with this particular barn is that it is red (mostly), weatherbeaten (a lot) and has a ton of really cool features that ought to make a cool picture.

But Sunday I had a plan. I snuck up on the barn in a roundabout way so it couldn’t see me coming. I crept as quietly as I could, making no sound. And then, I popped up from behind a shrub, focused not on the barn itself, but rather the reflection in its window and grabbed this particular picture.

Sure, you can say that technically I did not actually take a picture of the barn. But, the barn frames out the window and reflection rather nicely, I think, and through the window we see the last vestiges of fall.

A Matter Of Perspective, originally uploaded by ifringe.

It’s a matter of perspective, I suppose. This shot has no post processing work on it, save for the routine stuff that I always do (like a touch of vignette. For some reason, I always add a touch of vignette to every photo I do. Why this is, I do not know, but it is something that makes the photo inherently “right” to me, and so I do it. Anyway, I digress).

Like I was saying. There is no post processing work on this photo. The reflection is as-is and comes right from the camera. And, all in all, I think the photo hits the effect I was looking for.

Here’s what I did and how I created this shot. First off, came the daisies. Those were the most important bit of the entire photo. They were dyed, I think, and that dye leached off into the water, giving the vase a nice ruby glow. Couldn’t have asked for better. Next, I took the daisies outside and stuck them on a mirror. Yes, a mirror. An everyday, household mirror that one moment was peacefully hanging on the wall, minding its own business, and the next moment was sitting outside. Funny how that happens. Finally, I stood at right angles to the sun on a cloudless day, made sure my own reflection didn’t appear and took the shot.

It was that simple.

I imported it into Aperture, added a vignette (did I mention I like vignettes?) and loaded it here. OK, OK. I had a spot on the mirror that I didn’t notice until I was about ready to upload it. I did blend that out. But that’s it. Promise.

So, all in all, I ended up with a very pretty bunch of flowers with a reflection floating on a blue space, all without post processing. Amazing what you can do with a mirror, isn’t it?