More About Water Reflections
Stripe Patterns
Under the laws of perspective, the wave density on a water’s surface changes rapidly with respect to the vertical visual angle. When wave crests horizontally align, their intervals are proportional to the inverse square of the distance from the observer. Consequently, thin stripes appear near the reflected building base in the distance. In contrast, the foreground often displays bold, two-colored thick stripes composed of the reflected building facade and blue sky. These stripes are natural, original designs created by the water (see "Metropolitan Cityscapes").
A Sea of Miniature Suns
Reflecting off rippling water, sunlight creates numerous bead-like images of the Sun. While the individual images on moving ripples are slightly distorted and imperfect, they collectively form a sea of miniature suns across the water's surface. Under relatively strong winds, waves in a pond can reach a critical state, forming sharpened crests with a 30-degree slope and flattened troughs. In this case, bead-like sunlight reflections are often chained along the crests and troughs (see "Sparkling on the Water" above ).
Light Pillars
The distribution and brightness of sun glitter are determined by solar altitude, wave conditions (height, wavelength, direction, and profile), surface reflectance, observer’s position, and perspective. The elongated reflection patterns of street lamps are also influenced by the position and directionality of the light source. Under moderate winds, stable waves without whitecaps maintain limited slopes, typically within several degrees. These limited slopes tend to confine the reflection patterns from both sunlight and artificial light sources primarily along the line of sight, creating a light pillar (see "Sparkling on the Water" above and "Background Slideshows").
Vertically Flipped Photographs
Vertically flipped water-reflection photographs capture an optical reality—an upward view from a virtual perspective beneath the water surface, excluding refraction, that mirrors the observer's height above the water. Because water-reflection photographs contain multiple light layers (see "Quick Look ASW"), their vertically flipped images create a deep space with a sense of pure transparency. Conceptually, these photographs possibly present the sublation (i.e. Aufheben) of reality and unreality, fact and fantasy, the solid and the fluid.