Tim Graves

Reflecting Waters

Upside down, sideways, and not quite right, reflecting waters offer us a perspective that can illumine or appear to skew reality. I confess a fascination with the interplay between light, water, and surroundings.

When the waters are still, reflections can magnify natural beauty.

The east end of Mosier is reflected in still waters. Photo by Tim Graves.
The east end of Mosier, Oregon  is reflected in still waters. Photo by Tim Graves.
Clouds are mirrored in the blue waters near Coyote Wall in Washington state. Photo by Tim Graves
Clouds are mirrored in the blue waters near Coyote Wall in Washington state. Photo by Tim Graves

Sometimes reflections create an unexpected beauty in the utilitarian.

The grain elevator in Condon, Oregon is a grey concrete structure. These tanks have bright plastic tubes where many elevators have cold, steel. An unexpected puddle on the grey gravel creates an unexpected beauty in the common and utilitarian. Photo by Tim Graves
The grain elevator in Condon, Oregon is a grey concrete structure. These tanks have bright tubes where many elevators have cold, steel. An unexpected puddle on the grey gravel creates an unexpected beauty in the common and utilitarian. Photo by Tim Graves

Still waters and fog, water in the air, can reflect light creating an otherworldly aura around the common mechanical process of electric lighting.

BNSF Reflection
The not quite-still Columbia River reflects the lights of a BNSF train as it travels along the Columbia River in the early morning fog near Mosier, Oregon and Bingen, Washington. Photo by Tim Graves

Mirrors covered in algae do not reflect sunlight clearly. What passersby might otherwise characterize as slime, reveals a kaleidoscopic aesthetic when spaces between the algae reflect nearby vegetation.

Beneath a freeway overpass, waters rise in the winter months. When the spring sunshine emerges reflections battle with algae in Rock Creek Park in Oregon. Photo by Tim Graves

Moving waters on sand create a flickering and changing image of the immovable. With each wave, the sturdy dances on the sands.

Haystack Reflection

Reflections do more than simulate. They expand and enhance. Their echoing imagery hint at the deeper essence, the divinity within, that we would not perceive looking directly at that which is reflected. The soul of creation, what I call the Imago Dei (image of God) can be glimpsed in reflections. Maybe that is why I am so fascinated by them.

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