One technique I love to use when the opportunity presents itself is incorporating reflections into my wildlife photos. Of course, this is something you can only do if you’re near water, so your opportunities might be somewhat limited. However, some species live predominantly near water, so you might be able to use reflections more often than you’d think.

Reflections as a Tool for Surrealism

What I love about reflections is that they can bring a lot of color into a photograph and alter the perception of reality. Reflections can inject a little bit of surrealism because they don’t always match the scene you’re looking at. This could be due to ripples in the water or your position relative to your subject and the reflective surface. When you’re photographing still water, you get that perfect reflection, but any motion in the water will break it up, creating a more impressionistic look.

No Photoshop Wizardry Needed

This photograph shows a group of snowy egrets in a national wildlife refuge in Florida. They were gathered on the shore, and when I made this photograph, the reflection doesn’t seem to match the birds above. People often ask if I did something in Photoshop to make it look like this. In reality, the reflection matches perfectly, but because my position relative to the birds and the reflective surface changed the perception, it feels mismatched. That dissonance can engage viewers and keep them intrigued by the photo.

Still Water = Perfect Mirror Reflection

Here, I photographed a great blue heron where the water was absolutely still, creating a perfect mirror reflection. When you find still water, it allows you to make really interesting wildlife photos with that ideal, undistorted reflection. This kind of symmetry can result in striking compositions.

In this shot, I had perfect conditions—absolutely still and clean water. There’s just one lone stump breaking the surface, and the reflection perfectly matches the scene above. It’s a very simple, yet powerful composition that showcases how reflective surfaces can add depth to an otherwise minimal scene.

Impressionistic Reflection with Color

Here’s a photograph of white pelicans taken at a national wildlife refuge in Florida during sunset. The water was rippled, so I didn’t get that perfect reflection. Instead, I got more of an impressionistic look. The sunset’s golden light reflected in the water, bringing beautiful colors to what would have otherwise been a fairly colorless scene.

Create Mystery & Interest

This shot was taken in Namibia, where three elephants were walking past a waterhole at sunset. I exposed the scene for the setting sun, which threw the elephants and the landscape into deep silhouette. The reflection of the elephants, however, still retained detail that wasn’t visible in the darkened scene above. You can’t see the tree or the setting sun in the water’s reflection, but you see the elephants. This creates a sense of cognitive dissonance, where the reflection doesn’t seem to add up with what’s above it, enhancing the photo’s mystery and interest.

Using Reflections in Graphic Compositions

This image of a flamingo was taken off the coast of Namibia. The sun was setting, and its bright reflection in the water was very contrasty. I underexposed the shot to capture the color of the sun in the water, which put everything else into silhouette. I was leading a workshop at the time and explained this technique to my group. We ran around trying to frame the flamingos with the sun’s reflection, moving constantly as both the birds and the sun shifted. The goal was to get the flamingo perfectly positioned in that bright strip of reflected sunlight, creating a striking composition.

Light & Reflection in Harmony

This shot was taken on the Zambezi River in Zambia. I was in a boat photographing a hippo floating in the water. The foliage on the far bank was brightly lit by strong sunlight, while the water and hippo remained in shadow. This contrast created a beautiful reflection in the water, framing the hippo with vibrant color from the background. It’s a great example of how reflections can add an artistic abstraction to wildlife photography.

Dynamic Shapes in Reflection

Here’s another reflection shot from the Galapagos Islands, showing a group of flamingos walking through still water. The calm surface allowed for a perfect mirror reflection. What I really loved about this scene was the way the flamingos and their reflections formed an abstract triangle shape. The dynamic grouping, completed by the reflection, resulted in a striking and balanced composition.

The Artistic Power of Reflections

Reflections are a powerful tool to enhance the visual interest of wildlife compositions. They allow you to bring in more color, push artistic abstraction, and create images that stand out. Whether you’re working with perfectly still water or embracing an impressionistic look with ripples, reflections can add that extra level of intrigue and artistry to your wildlife photos.

This article is excerpted from Ian Plant’s KelbyOne course: Artistic Wildlife Photo Techniques. All images ©Ian Plant.

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