Mirror of the Forest: Oak Mountain State Park, Pelham, Alabama

Alabama's largest state park holds a lot of secrets. Thousands of acres of hardwood forest, miles of hiking and biking trails, lakes, wildlife, and hidden overlooks that most visitors never find. But on a quiet overcast spring morning, one of Oak Mountain's most beautiful secrets reveals itself right at the water's edge.

Shot from the bank of one of Oak Mountain State Park's lakes in Pelham, Alabama, "Mirror of the Forest" captures the spring forest at its most vivid and the water at its most still. The far bank is lined with a dense wall of freshly leafed-out trees — every shade of spring green from pale yellow-green to deep emerald — rising up the hillside and filling the upper half of the frame with the kind of lush, saturated color that only Alabama in April can produce. And then the waterline arrives, and the forest doubles itself.

The lake's surface, smoothed to near-perfect stillness under the soft gray overcast sky, holds a flawless mirror image of the treeline — every branch, every leaf cluster, every variation in color recreated in the water below with remarkable precision. Overhanging branches reach into the frame from both lower corners, completing the natural frame and drawing the eye inward toward the center of the reflection where the real and the mirrored world meet in a single unbroken line.

It is the kind of image that rewards a second look — and a third. The longer you study it, the harder it becomes to say with certainty which half is the forest and which half is the reflection.

Bring the lush, perfectly mirrored beauty of Oak Mountain State Park home with this museum-quality fine art photography print by Bama Price — available as metal, canvas, or glossy paper.