Reflections

The assignment this week for my online photography class is to walk about and receive images of reflections...and then 'reflect' on them. I despaired finding any the first part of the week as the weather was not cooperating...gray, dismal, drizzley days that made being outside painful. Yesterday, however, the weather changed and since I had plans to meet a friend in Des Moines for lunch, I decided to wander around the downtown library and see if I received any reflective images there. It's funny...I've looked at this spectacular building a million times, but I wasn't sure the goldy-bronze panels actually reflected anything! A perfect example of looking at things, but not really 'seeing' them. As I discovered, the panels do reflect images depending on where you stand. In one light, they are opaque. Move a few feet and change the light and they become mirrors of the urban landscape. I call this image "Urban Angles, Illusions, & Reflections" At first glance, it's hard to see where the entrance ends and its reflection begins.

This is the building across the street from the library. You see its reflection above. Here you see the library itself reflected in the building's multi-paned windows. From this angle, the library looks like a long, low Prairie-style builing situated to hug the horizon. The close-up photo below shows reflected buildings with colors muted by the copper mesh infused in the glass panels of the library's walls. I think it makes the image look rather mysterious and like you're on the inside looking out through screened window. A question to ponder: do I see the world as it is or as it's reflected through the 'screen' of my mind?