Water comes in many forms

Reflective...
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Water has no colour of its own, and will happily reflect its immediate surroundings.

Which likely explains why I find myself standing in a deeply chilled valley late in the afternoon looking for inspiration in the nearly frozen creek that runs through it.

Not everything is frozen over. And if I stand just so and look into the fast-setting sun, the gentle waves rolling off the ice clinging to the shallow rocky shoreline seem to form the loveliest reflections this side of a glass factory.

I’ve been here on so many other days that seemed much like this one, yet never have I seen a mercury-like surface quite like this. Weird how that works, no? The familiar serving up something entirely new. As if it was waiting for this single moment.

I explore the scene with my camera, playing with the settings to balance the brilliant reflections against the darker shadows - a dynamic range challenge if ever there was one. When I’m done, I shift just a couple of steps to my left and the scene disappears entirely. I try to move back into position, but the moment is gone for good, now remembered only in pixels on my memory card.

It dawns on me just how narrow these windows of time can be. And we only get to experience them if we’re precisely where the universe wants us.

Something to ponder, I guess, as I slowly walk back to the life that awaits outside the valley. I’ll have to come back here another day. Hopefully the universe has another plan for me - and my lens - when I return.

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