Weekly Photo Challenge: An Unusual Point Of View

“Are there fish in there?”

As I eagerly await the glorious explosion of color about to take place upon the landscape, I’m going with another autumn themed post of this weeks Photo Challenge.

Most people visiting New Hampshire during autumn, come for scenes like this one showing fall in all its glory.

Not me, at least not always, and definitely not on one particular day in early October of last year.

I was looking for a unique point of view.

On a mission to create a series of abstract nature photographs for a client, I set out to capture the warmth and brilliance of autumn in New Hampshire without the photographs being too “seasonal.”

Photographs that depicted the peak of autumn color, yet could be displayed year round and not seem out of place with the season.

Since I was after an abstract style of photo, I felt that each photo should engage the viewer and leave them asking, “what is that?” Recognizable, even if only slightly, as something in nature while inspiring the viewer to invest more than a casual glance.

So instead, I came up with this,

Would you believe that these photographs are of the same scene and as close to mirror images of each other as I could get? The second, which by the way, the client loved and is now printed BIG on canvas and hanging on her wall, is the same sheer granite wall, the same splendid fall foliage, as in the first photo, only in the second it is reflected on the rippled surface of a small pond at the base of the cliffs.

But what do fish have to do with anything?

Well now, that’s a funny story. I started the day with a beautiful sunrise, and an iconic New England  scene, complete with white steeple church surrounded by mountains of color. Then I finished the day off with a moose. All of which can also be seen in this post from last year.

However, during the remainder of a long full day in the mountains of New Hampshire, even though surrounded by glorious mountain scenery at the height of autumn color, I rarely pointed my camera directly at the foliage laden scenery, and when I did it wasn’t in a conventional way. Most of the time I was photographing it indirectly, through reflections, or using camera motion to capture all the vibrant color in a unique and abstract way.

By panning my camera, both vertically and horizontally during exposure, or setting it low to the waters surface to capture the reflection, I was able to create the series of abstract images I sought for my client.

Anyway, let me finish my fish story.

Without exception, at any place I was photographing, no matter how beautiful the scene, I was the one and only photographer, among the hoards of tourists and other photographers, who was pointing their camera at the water. Quite often I would walk up beside a group of tourists, immediately get down on my knees to set up my camera, pointing down at the water, take a few shots, then get up and leave.

The puzzled look on their faces, as they watched this guy with a bag full of expensive gear, who never once looked up at the scene everyone else was admiring, was priceless!

And without fail, every single time I set up for a shot, at least one person would ask me, “are there fish in there?”