blue64 Loc: Washington, Pa. USA

Due to the curvature of the earth

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

:thumbup:

Don, the 2nd son Loc: Crowded Florida

The texture of the water surface changes. Just watch the waters surface at any time and we see that variations in wind speed and direction plays with the texture of the surface.

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

There you go, global warming. Everything else that goes wrong is blamed on global warming. Governor Jerry Brown would tell you its a sign that the human race is going extinct because of climate change.

ssscomp

OK. So I'm the guy that took the original photo. Here's the theory that my son and I came up with. If the water was replaced with a perfectly perfectly flat sheet of glass we would not see this triangle effect. We only see the reflection of the moon on the water when the "angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection" in-line with our eyes. Since the water surface is constantly changing with slight undulations, ripples etc. in actuality any particular spot is reflecting the Moon towards our eyes at any given moment and then just a fraction of a second later it is not. However since there are so many "pieces of water" doing this we don't notice the individual reflection is going on and off Rather we just see it as a reflection. As you go out towards the horizon looking at it horizontally even though the "slice of water" that we see is thinner there is actually a lot more water in that slice so there are more "pieces of water" Capable of reflecting light towards us hence it appears wider.
That is theory number one. Theory number two is we had too many bloody Mary's.

TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland

I propose the top solar image is a mirage and bottom image is a reflection. The index of refraction gradients that cause mirages over a hot surface are also impacted by moisture.

In this image I propose that there is an impact to the refraction index of the air between the sun and camera caused by water temperature impacting the air temperature above it as well as the water vapor density of the air. For each cause I would suggest the impact is a function of the altitude.

As I think about this further the refraction index gradient also comes into play as seen when viewing a sunset and seeing the sun drop very quickly as it is at the horizon.

PhotoArtsLA Loc: Boynton Beach

Inefficient cloaking devices on alien spacecraft. Obviously. ;) Here's a shot where you can see the sunlight glint all the way to the beach EXCEPT in the shadow of a wave.

No Aliens

(Download)

HEART Loc: God's Country - COLORADO

As with painting, the focal point (and corresponding depth of view) - the point at which your focus is drawn to - will change, depending where the artist/camera is positioned. This was a perspective that was "invented" by Renaissance painters who discovered that they could create a focal point by moving stronger images into the foreground and allow the background to recede, creating a different focal point and creating "depth" to the painting. Photography produces this concept automatically.

jfn007 Loc: Close to the middle of nowhere.

"Ozone" Al Gore has made almost $200 million dollars off of his Global Warming scam. Then there is the backup excuse for anything gone wrong, "It's George Bush's fault."

creativ simon Loc: Coulsdon, South London

First things first, great image

Now my answer to your question would be the earth is round not flat hence causing this

cannoneer35 Loc: Rhode Island

Because the wide area is closest to the subject and is being reflected back at you kinda like a pin hole camera reverses the images because it don't have a corrective lens.

Bmarsh Loc: Bellaire, MI

Ok, the way I see it. The near brightness is about the same angle (down) from the horizon as the sun is "up" from the horizon so you are seeing a reflection of the sun because the water is flat enough to allow that. If there was choppy water, or..... Replace the water with a flat earth, you would not see the reflection.

The far brightness (under the sun) is actual sunlight ON THE WATER and if you were looking at flat earth, you would still see that brightness. A ship in that far brightness would show because the sun is ON it... Whereas a ship in the near brightness would block some of the reflection.

tonyjag Loc: Bolton, Ma.

That was also my initial theory. But look at the light source on the horizon just left of the "trianagle" ...it's reflection behaves just the opposite, getting brighter in the middle.
Whatever the effect, it seems to vary with angle.

I also like the photo. No aplolgies needed.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

I always thought that parallax was the effect of a rangefinder camera as a resut of the viewfinder and the lens being seperate in two different angles to the subject. And as a result leading to inaccurate photos realtive to the viewfinder