Reflections on a train – Zugspitze, Germany (2015)
I love reflections. What I consider my first real “art” photograph was shot back in 1990. I had an assignment from my college photography teacher to make some nature pictures. So I grabbed my trusty Canon EOS, put on the 50mm lens and loaded up the camera with a roll of T-Max 400.
Unfortunately, I left the house a bit late and missed the early morning light and by the time I got to the forested park in Missouri, after an hour drive, the light was dim because of some heavy clouds.
I walked around a bit and made a few pictures. But the light was so low that the ISO 400 film wasn’t fast enough for decent picture without a tripod. On my way back to the car, I noticed a small pond in a large clearing. By then there was enough light getting through the clouds. I saw the reflections of the trees in the water so I made the shot right away.
That was one single shot before the light changed. When I developed and printed the picture in the darkroom, my classmates were amazed at how great it looked. I was surprised too. I didn’t realize that pictures with reflections were so mesmerizing to me. Unfortunately, I lost the picture and negative many years ago.
Nowadays, I don’t necessarily look for reflections. But occasionally I see a reflection that really draws me in. The picture above was one of those moments. On my way down from the Zugspitze glacier in southern Germany, I sat on the train and noticed the wonderful dreamy, almost ghost-like, reflections on the train window. I made, maybe, three pictures, but this is the only one where my fellow passengers’ eyes were looking in the direction that I thought looked perfect.
My instinct is to process most of my photos in black and white. I shared a black and white version of this on Instagram and I do still love the shades of gray in that version. But, I think the color version above looks better. The subtle colors creates a moody atmosphere that the black and white shot lacks. Maybe you see it differently.