How Wes Eisenhauer Captured This Cool Reflection Jumping Pic
Photographer and Director Wes Eisenhauer likes to take pictures of the unusual moments that life presents to him. And sometimes he goes out looking for those moments. Today, the Sioux Falls artist explains how he took this ninja-like reflection shot of himself jumping over a puddle.
Wes
I often like to go out on “photo missions” where I don’t necessarily have an idea of what I want to photograph. I thinks it’s a good exercise to go out and see what you can come up with. No pressure. Nothing more than an Instagram post. I often end up empty-handed.
One afternoon I was wandering around on one of these “photo missions” and decided to pull into this alley. I’ve always liked the sign in the background and thought it could be an interesting backdrop. It had just rained and I noticed a big puddle in the middle of the street. I do a lot of reflection photos for fun so when I saw the big puddle I knew I could use it.
I hovered my camera an inch over the puddle with a wide angle lens and started by just snapping a few pictures of the Sioux Steel sign itself. I thought the picture could be more interesting if it had a body in it but I was by myself and I didn’t have a tripod. I used my earbuds case to help balance the camera on the ground, set the 10-second timer, hit the shutter, then ran about 20 feet away and jumped. It took me a few times to get the timing down right on the jump, but I think I got this shot around the fifth attempt. This video is from my Instagram story that day.
Camera & Settings
Canon 5D Mark III
DSLR camera with 22-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor and wide range ISO setting of 100 – 25600
Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM Art
35mm art lens with f/1.4 maximum aperture for Canon SLR cameras, Lens Type: Fast Prime Lens
I was using a Canon 5D Mark III and a Sigma 35mm 1.4 art lens. My settings were 1/200, f/5.6, ISO 160. I made some light color tweaks in Lightroom afterwards.
It just goes to show what you can do with a little creative thinking and a sense of exploration. The industrial setting and the yellow steel sign might go unnoticed to the average passerby, but they really make the photo here. The sign in the reflection is just awesome. If you want to see more photography by Wes, check out his website and Instagram.
