Reflection Perfection!

by **மாலதி** Sun Oct 09, 2011 7:26 am

Reflection perfection! Photographer travels the globe to capture stunning mountain-range shots

These incredible
pictures displaying the reflection of several mountain ranges
throughout North and South America as well as Italy, may at first appear
to be digitally enhanced, but have in fact been captured without any
digital enhancement.

The shots are the work of photographer Jack Brauer, who has spent the last 10 years travelling across the globe, collating these stunning series of hypnotic mirrored landscapes.

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Top that! Brauer's favourite viewpoint is
the Baita Segantini and the Pale di San Martino group, near San Martino
di Castrozza in Dolomites, Italy

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Sky is the limit: The misty backdrop of the Grand Teton and Mount Owen, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

From the Fitz Roy Range in
Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina to the Gore Range in Colorado,
Jack combines his love of backpacking and photography with spectacular
results. Despite having an incredible array of landscapes on his doorstep, Jack's favourite wilderness lies in the heart of Europe.

'One of my favourite places
to photograph is the Dolomites in northern Italy. The mountains there
are extremely jagged and unique, rising out of the surrounding
paradisiacal valleys like giant rock sculptures - each one with it's own
unique shape. It's very photogenic there, to say the least! 'But
my photos don't have any particular message, except conveying a general
appreciation for the beauty of nature and wilderness. 'I
think it's important to celebrate the beauty of pristine nature,
especially nowadays when more and more of the planet is being covered
with cement and smog.'

More...

Sunny boy! This lad's got a lot of (solar) flair as heatwave brings spectacular sunsets

'Reflections provide a perfect visual symmetry that is otherwise difficult if not impossible to find elsewhere in nature.

'The reflections add another
dimension to the photos - they transform the scene into an abstract
pattern that reveals the "essence" of the landscape.

'In other words, when you
view a normal landscape you can be too much accustomed to the reality
and normality of the earth - even if it is a dramatic and wonderful
scene.

'But when you see the mirror
image of the landscape below it, there's a kind of detachment from
solid-earth reality and all that's left are shapes, colours, and
textures of the landscape.'

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Picture perfect: The sun rises behind Huron Peak, in in the Sawatch Range, near Vail and Leadville in Colorado

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Latin light: The new dawn illuminates the
jagged peaks of the Fitz Roy Range in Los Glaciares National Park,
Patagonia, Argentina

Carefully choosing the
perfect spot for each subject - sometimes with the help of Google Earth -
Jack will wait for several hours for the perfect light or time of day
in order to get the right shot.

'I take most of my photos while backpacking in the mountains, usually on treks lasting between three and seven days.

'When I'm camped at a
certain place I usually spend a long time walking around to scope out
the area to get some ideas for photos, and then I often wake up early
and return to those spots for sunrise, or stay there for sunset.

'Often I have found ideas
for awesome vantage points after researching maps and other helpful
tools like Google Earth, then it's a matter of hiking to or from those
spots in the dark.

'The successful photos
are a combination of research and the adventure of hiking, along with
sheer luck with the weather and light conditions.'

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Let it snow, let it snow: Lone Eagle Peak
Mountain where the trees reflect off the water in the Indian Peaks
Wilderness area of Colorado

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Seeing double: The reflection of Watch
Tower and Pingora Peak in the Cirque of the Towers, a mountain range of
the Rocky Mountains in western Wyoming