Reflection of Tranquility: Aldridge Gardens, Hoover, Alabama

Sometimes the sky is more beautiful in the water than it is above your head.

At Aldridge Gardens in Hoover, Alabama, the lake does something remarkable on a calm autumn afternoon — it becomes a second sky. Shot from the water's edge looking across the still surface, "Reflection of Tranquility" captures the lake at its most mirror-like, the lower two-thirds of the frame filled entirely with the reflected image of billowing white cumulus clouds drifting across a soft blue sky. The reflection is so clear, so complete, that for a moment the eye isn't entirely sure which way is up.

Above the waterline, the real world reasserts itself gently — a dark wooded treeline running across the far bank, and in the upper right corner, the soft arc of a fountain catching the light, its gentle spray the only movement in an otherwise perfectly still scene. Wild grasses and berry stems along the near bank frame the foreground, grounding the image in the Alabama landscape.

Aldridge Gardens is one of the Birmingham metro area's most beloved natural spaces — a 30-acre botanical garden and sculpture park in Hoover built around a natural lake and the legacy of horticulturalist Eddie Aldridge. On this particular afternoon, the garden offered up something even more beautiful than its famous hydrangeas — a sky reflected so perfectly in the water that it looked like the world had been turned upside down and made more peaceful for it.

Bring the serene, cloud-filled beauty of Aldridge Gardens home with this museum-quality fine art photography print by Bama Price — available as metal, canvas, or glossy paper.