How to Spot Subtle Patterns in Water
To spot subtle patterns in water, look where dark and light reflections touch each other. On calm days, the surface of water can appear still,…
Tag: reflections
How to Use Your Hands to See Underwater
When we look at water angles are important. Looking across the water, at shallow angles, we see mostly reflections – the colour of the water…
The Duck’s Bottom Effect
Many people imagine that the reflections we see in the water are the same as the image we see above the water, only inverted. But…
How to Spot Patterns in Calm Water
If you are trying to work out what calm water is doing, it is sometimes tempting to feel like nothing interesting is happening. There are…
How to See Through Reflections on Water
Anyone who spends time on or near the water will have noticed that sometimes we can see through water, but often we can’t. For those…
The Glitter Path
A ‘glitter path’ is light reflected off water from a low sun, moon or other bright object. Glitter paths help us to read water because…
Reflections and Ripples
We see the most detail in relatively calm water when we look at the places where light and dark reflections meet. Look at the line…
How to Read Wave Patterns at the Coast
I took this photo from the South West Coast Path in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, a few days ago. In it we can see…
Is this Grass Blue or Green?
My thanks to Peter Gibbs for another fascinating email. You can see our exchange below. If you have your own different interpretation, do please get in touch. ——-…
Shadows on Water
I’m just back from a brief visit to Prague, where I witnessed many wonderful things. Included among the small delights were these views from the…
Eric Ravilious and the Duck’s Bottom Effect
The English artist, Eric Ravilious (1903 -1942), is loved by many of us who tramp the same chalky hills of the South Downs that he…
The Skimming Effect
Have you ever enjoyed a good session of skimming stones at the beach? You know those times when the stone hits the water at the…
Heiligenschein or Halo Effect
When a bright light source is directly behind us, we see a brighter ring around the shadow of our head. This is the Heiligenschein, or…
Ripples, Reflections and Patterns
It can be difficult to see detail in the surface of calm water. To work out what the water is doing, look at the places…
Tree Tricks
Have a look at the trees in this picture I took yesterday. It is quite hard to make out the shape of many individual branches,…