Reflections: In and Out

The other night I picked up my camera to distract my attention from a family game that I was losing horribly.

     I started with pics of game pieces.
                                                              

                           

my cellular device,

and the boys.

But I soon turned my attention to the reflection of a plant in our back sliding door. 

The reflective photo was intriguing to me so as soon as the game was over (which was none to soon!) 

I put on some great music and played around. 

It was about 10pm and dark outside with low light inside. It took one shot for me to realize that using a flash would only result in a very dark pane of glass with a very bright reflection of the flash. (Umm...duh!) 

So I turned up the ISO and used slow shutter speeds (between 3 and 10 seconds, depending on the shot). 

I was too lazy to pull out the tripod and just stabilized the camera on my arm, thus, lots of noise and blur. 

But I still thought the results were interesting enough to share.

 (Disclaimer: I am in all of the photos. I apologize. Honestly.)

This was the first shot out of the camera. I didn't like how my brow was all squinched up so I kept on trying,

not even realizing till later what I was actually getting in the background - like the quilt.

Once I figured that out I really started to have fun! 

I learned that depending on where I placed my focus I would get too much reflection of what was inside, 

and not enough of what was outside...

 ...or the opposite - too much of what was outside and not enough of what was inside.

 

Then I got on the floor to take a shot or two and realized that the glass desperately needed cleaning from where our little dog nudges his nose, paws and tongue to let know us he wants out...or in. EW!! 

I promise it did not look that bad in real life. And I cleaned it right after that. 

With a few more shots, I found the balance I was looking for and came up with this. 

This photo is straight out of the camera, completely unedited, except for cropping out a door handle.

On the inside, reflecting in the glass: me; the chair I sat in; decorative railings that separate our kitchen from our great room; the hallway behind me; and sitting in the great room, my guitar in its stand. Outside, on the other side of the glass: the tree in our neighbor's backyard; the heavy wooden posts that are part of our deck; the deck railing (reflected against the chair I'm sitting in); the neighbor's house; snow on the ground; and a sky that looks blue, even though it really was 10pm. 

This  next photo was my favorite, with the only edit being a slight decrease in saturation to take out some of the orange tint and pop the snow a little. 

To me it represents the perfect balance of what was inside and what was outside that night.

Now if only I could find that same clarity, focus, and  balance in my life. 

And keep it. 

Like a photograph.