Chasing Reflections

When I first downloaded Eli Reinholdtsen’s new eBook, honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I figured, what could one possibly write about reflections? How hard could it be? Just walk up to a chrome bumper on a sunny day and shoot it, right? Maybe, a cliche’ shot of your dog’s reflection from a side view mirror of your car? I just didn’t see how a photograph of a reflection could be written about. Maybe, it could be tweeted about but not a 72 page eBook!

I had decided that there must be something to Chasing Reflections as I don’t think Craft and Vision would release mediocre publications. After reading Chasing Reflections, my respect for Eli’s work shot ten fold. My first mistake is that I did not truly “look” at the image. I merely glanced at an image so I did not “get it” and thought it to be boring. Chasing Reflections will help you understand her work and art in general.

Eli goes on in great detail about her process. Her muse is the “reflection”. They fascinate her and her images will fascinate you, when you really look at them. Don’t just glance at them, really study them. You will find many things going on in them. You could revisit the images time and time again and see something new.

After explaining the “process” of how she crafts an image. Eli goes on to explaining the techniques used to express her vision. Things such as choosing a focus point, choosing an angle, posters and people, playing with mirrors, when there is not enough light; they all paint a story and have a “decisive moment” element to them. And here I figured there was nothing to shooting a reflection… boy, was I wrong.

Do yourself a favour and pick up Chasing Reflections from Craft and Vision. It’s only $4 for the download when using the checkout code, REFLECT4. Chasing Reflection, really opened my eyes to the type of creativity we can do with our camera and a reflection. Thanks for the great book, Eli and Craft and Vision.