On the day that I took this photograph, I was also photo-bombed by a juvenile preying mantis: well, in all honesty it wasn’t a photo-bombing so much as it was a casual saunter. At any rate, I captured this image on the day of an unexpected and unusual visit. The first shot of the young mantis has already appeared in my gallery, and now I’m posting the image that I’d intended before being bushwhacked by a diminutive, somewhat spindly predator with an oddly whimsical expression on its pointy-little face. (There will be more photos of that little person as well. S/he posed nicely, before flying off in search of someone to eat.) Since taking this initial photo, I’ve been inundated with references to mirrors, reflections, and in the most pleasurable encounter, the things that live in mirrors…well…things that were imprisoned in mirrors, but are now free. I’ve spoken of reflections with other friends, I’ve explored their similarities to the layered images I’ve been making, and, I’ve finally begun reading China Miéville’s short story collection, Looking for Jake: a brilliant collection of tales, including a novella called The Tain: a novella about…um…well…well…rather than give anything away, we’ll just say that it’s a rather…reflective story that turns a number of literary belief systems and clichés into mincemeat. Mr. Miéville is so good at that, and I’m still agog and enamored with his Bas Lag novels, as well as the profound and oddly unsettling brilliance on display in his novel The City and the City. In nabbing this photograph, I immediately thought of Tara, her reflection shots, and the whole 6-layer-image challenge she and anahata.c (Mark) put forth. I’ve got a growing number of 6-layer images in my expanding file of digital layered confections. More of those will find their way into my gallery here, as a least two of them have left me in a state of giddy surprise. This is a single image, and yet, I can see implications of 6 layers here…well…okay…maybe 3, and because of this image, I’m interested in pursuing the near-goal of layering 6 separate images into a coherent whole, while also blending them in such as way as to imply a single image…OR a single image and a reflection. We’ll see how that goes! The reflections and reflected reflections in this image live in the windows of a somewhat new-ish restaurant within walking distance of my job. I should also point out that the reflections in question also live on the route one might take from the Westin on Michigan Avenue to Reza’s Restaurant on Ontario Street. The reflections in question live in a rather expensive restaurant dedicated to…well…from what I can tell, the restaurant is dedicated to red meat: judging by the moneyed clientele entering the place, I’d say that the red meat in question is mostly cooked, and probably coated in peppercorns that have and flash-seared meat juices that trick diners into thinking that their gastro-intestinal machinery won’t have to over-work itself in processing uncooked foreign tissue. I won’t eat at this place, but it is quite a marvel of glass, wood, utilitarian metal. As I look at this image now, and think of where this place stands, I feel that it’ll be time to make my way to Reza’s Restaurant, soon…it’s been a while since I’ve had Persian food. Because I thought of Tara (and because she has so many reflections and layered images) in her gallery, I’m dedicating it to her. I probably wouldn’t have even seen this if I hadn’t been thinking about various conversations involving reflections and shimmering things, and so here are reflections (and reflections of reflections) for Tara. As always: thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week. I’m fighting off the last of a cold (I’ve named it Fred, and soon, Fred will be gone) and so I’m a bit out of the swing of commenting, but I hope to catch up soon.