What happened in this picture?

[Syborg1211]

I didn't notice how the reflection in the water stops in the middle of the water when I was out shooting. I'm still learning, and I'm just wondering what would have made the reflection go all the way to back of the water? Smaller aperture? I didn't remember seeing a shade like that along the water with my eyes so I'm guessing it was a setting in the camera.

Thanks!

Edit: Here's the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76216978@N05/7004696151/in/photostream

 

[dougp]

It's the shadow from a building or tree - preventing the sunlight from reflecting in between the ripples. You can see the shade on the "beach" to the right.

 

[Paladin3]

Looks to me like a small gust of wind is sweeping across the water and causing ripples that prevent the trees from reflecting clearly. The ripples just happen to end about where the shadow starts.

You can see calmer water and clearer reflections on the far side of the lake, then distortion from the ripples in the middle, with clear reflection again closest to the camera. If you took more than one frame you should be able to see the ripple pattern changing with the wind gusts.

 

[angry hampster]

Slower shutter speed will smooth out water.

 

[corkyg]

My sense is with Paladin3 - a wind freshet that changes the water surface in a band. Slower shutter speed will simply blur the water and you may have a blurred reflection or no reflection.

 

[radhak]

The reflection of the trees is dark, but the reflection of the sandstone abutment (below the trees) is bright and larger than life, so it overshadowed everything else. You can see shades of the sandstone color in the reflection.

I think the sun was right above head, or near-abouts, exaggerating this effect. If the sun was behind the camera, you should see it more to what you are looking for. But then, the reflection may not be so pronounced, or the water so blue. A better bet would be to scout out places where there isn't so much contrast in the colors (dark green, bright sandstone) in objects that are being reflected.

As for the ripples, I think a faster shutter speed would give you better (sharper) reflection, while 'freezing' the ripples (if that's what you also wanted to do).