The Blue Mirror of a Sunlit Swimming Pool

Sitting by a swimming pool and staring at its surface offers so much to look at.

I have never lived with a swimming pool, and I have always glamorized them. When I do sit by a pool, often while visiting family or friends in Arizona, I love watching the shapes, colors, and shadows created by the simple combination of sunlight and water.

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Of the numerous phenomena that occur when light and water come together, I enjoy taking notice of six elements I’ve identified over the years:

1. The Sun’s Reflection

   

   An image of the sun itself is reflected in the surface of the pool: a portrait from outer space. This is the first thing I notice. It presents differently based on the position of the sun in the sky, the texture of the surface, and the interaction of the sun with any existing clouds.

2. The Texture of the Water’s Surface

   

   Ripples and waves caused by wind, swimmers, objects in the pool, and other disruptions distort and stretch what is reflected. A calm pool is a mirror, and too much motion disrupts the reflection completely. I am an aficionado of a slight ripple that is not too fine-grained, shaping the glassy reflections into large, sublime shapes.

3. Reflected Images from Earth

   

   From the sky and clouds to nearby objects or one’s own portrait, whatever is reflected in the pool’s surface can, if the water is calm enough, present itself in full color with strong detail. Sometimes reflected images are more subtle and less saturated. Changes in what is reflected are easy to induce by looking at the pool from different locations and angles.

4. A Net of Shine

   

   Sunlight passing through water projects a shining pattern of bright, pulsating light onto the pool’s walls and floor. My friend Lisa told me that this refracted and focused light, technically known as a “caustic”, is notoriously difficult to create with computer animation. This phenomenon, which shines up from the depths of the pool in strong, overhead sunlight, is among the most dramatic things to be found in the blue mirror.

5. Colorful Sun Halos and Cloud Iridescence

   

   It is often easier to see cloud iridescence, sun halos, or other colorful sky phenomena by observing its reflection in the water than by looking at the sky with the naked eye, because the sky is often much too bright. Because the pool’s reflection reflects only part of the sky, it offers the chance to “block out” the sun with the edge of the pool and see clouds directly adjacent to the sun, which frequently contain cloud iridescence. (For more about how to see cloud iridescence, I wrote an entire post about it earlier this year.)

6. Superimposed Shadows

   

   A shadow can be a prominent graphic element of your view into the blue mirror. Its darkened shape over the water replaces the reflections and creates strong contrast. This is an element that is usually easy to add or change by blocking the sun and moving around.

In addition to what can be observed from outside the blue mirror, entering into the water physically and exploring it from within offers a mirror on the underside of the water’s surface.

The 1954 book that inspired “Have You Seen This Phenomenon?” is The Nature of Light and Color in the Open Air by Marcel Minnaert. He describes in great detail observations of the sun interacting with rivers, lakes, the sea, and puddles. A few memorable passages:

• “Part of the light received by us from water is reflected by the surface; so long as this is smooth it acts like a mirror. But if the surface of the water becomes rippled, the colors of the sky and [river]bank intermingle, sparkles of one flashing across the other. When it is very rippled, the water simply reflects a mixture of color.” (Page 308)

• “Another part of the light has penetrated the water and is there scattered by dust and by the general turbidity, [resulting in a more uniform color]…scattering is invariably present, even in the purest water.” (Pages 308-9)

• “Slight ripples become visible only along the boundary lines of bright and dark reflections.” (Page 331). (Page numbers refer to the Dover edition, which was the first English translation, published in 1954.)

He notes, with respect to lakes, puddles, and small pools near the seashore, that their surfaces are highly reflective from far away, but that this reflection fades at close range, mainly due to the angle of view becoming higher as one approaches the water (Page 310).

In a wild landscape, there is typically such complicated detail that it can be overwhelming. The human landscape surrounding the pool is a frame for the light and water. The light and water are fragments of the natural world. Its complexity is even more apparent in contrast to the simplicity of the built environment, which gives its abundance of detail a lot of room to breathe.

This out-of-context fragment calls to mind Eric Oglander’s Craigslist mirrors project, culminating in his 2017 book Mirrors, which features photos collected from online listings of mirrors for sale.

Oglander said in an interview that a great photograph “feels conceptually potent without a speck of intention behind it”.

In the right conditions, a pool is also a mirror lying on the ground, reflecting what happens to be nearby.

It’s a mirror that is layered with light effects, alive with motion, and allows one’s body to enter.

All photos by Emily Wick unless otherwise noted.