Reflecting on reflections | Scene Through the Lens

I don’t look for pictures specifically for this column. Virtually all come from what I see while on my assignments - or on my way to, or from them. The photos that end up here are the kind that don’t always “fit” the story I am covering.

This week’s photo (above) was made before a high school basketball showcase that featured some of the city’s and suburbs’ top boys’ and girls’ players.

Regular readers of this column know where my eye went as they dimmed the lights just as the players were about to be introduced, and large windows reflected on the highly polished gym floor at Holy Family University during the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council’s 37th annual All-Star Labor Classic.

But also this week, passing through Dilworth Park on the west side of City Hall, I paused at the fountain. It wasn’t the three-foot-high pulsing water jets that are usually dancing - often with youngsters running through - that caught my eye. It was the reflection in the thin scrim of water - when the programmable spouts weren’t spouting.

Never one to pass up a good reflection, of course I had to photograph it - putting my camera and lens at close as possible to the fountain surface (I did not get squirted).

The only question then was which of the week’s reflections to use?

In deference to the loyal and much-appreciated readers of our analog, dead tree, legacy edition, print version, who only see the photo in black and white, I opted to put the basketball photo there. And the rainbow here, online, in color.

Since 1998, a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color: