Often in life it’s really hard to do things that matter. In The War of Art Steven Pressfield calls the force that makes accomplishment so hard resistance: “Are you are writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what resistance is.”

Resistance takes many guises, and you can read Steven Pressfield’s excellent short book to see many of them defined, and to formulate a game plan for overcoming resistance.

Do you know what? Almost everything about my life and work as an artist and photographer is hard. I know resistance. I fight it every day.

Negative Space © Harold Davis—Click to view larger

With this image taken in a slot canyon near Page, Arizona, the act of photography was physically difficult. I had to get to the location, wait for the right weather and maneuver my camera and tripod into position to keep the rig steady for a number of exposures. When I finally had time to get to it, processing took many hours of precision work on my computer.

There’s no guarantee that anyone will like—let alone buy—anything I do. My work supports a family of six, so this is a scary thought.

Doing my art may be hard, but it is a great gift to me, difficulties and all.

I like to say that if it were easy, everyone would do it.

True enough. And, in some perverse way, the difficulties of making my art help me keep at it, day after day. I enjoy a challenge. Most of the time I have faith that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

What is it about reflections that draw us in? The initial fascination lies with the mirror world aspect of something reflected. Of course, the reflection is mostly like our world—but it differs. The most obvious difference is that something seen reflected—for example, in a mirror—is reversed.

The less mirror-like the reflecting surface the more distorted the reflection. For example, when water reflects the reflections merge into refraction. Things beneath the surface come into view and join with our reflected world to create an alternative universe. What started with an interest in reversal becomes quickly charged with exotic differences and the admixture of more than one reality.

Train Bridge near Richmond © Harold Davis—Click to view larger

For a moment, consider some other meanings of “to reflect.” To reflect is to think carefully about something. In psychology, we reflect feelings back to the person originating them. In photography, most subjects reflect light—and the reflected light is the subject of the photo.

No wonder that some images with reflections hold our interest. For many photographers a viable strategy is to get the viewer interested with line, color and composition but bring the viewer deeper using reflection. A reflection is our key to enhancing our understanding by looking at our world a little differently, and to thereby know ourselves better as well.

I’m pleased about some recent publications of my work. Ancient Music of the Stars, shown below, illustrates the month of December in the 2013 Nikon World calendar. Click here for my original story about the image, which was shot in the Patriarch Grove of Ancient Bristlecone Pines in eastern California’s White Mountains.

Ancient Music of the Stars © Harold Davis—Click to view larger

Peter Kolonia writes, “Harold Davis’ ethereal floral arrangements have a purity and translucence that borders on spiritual” in a December 2012 Popular Photo Magazine article that features my transparent floral technique, Pure Petals: Make flowers look translucent. Click here for a PDF download of the full article.

Finally, my Distant Night Storm in the Patriarch Grove appears as a two-page spread in the HarperCollins UK book Astronomy Photographer of the Year.