Yes, this IS a photograph! How a double exposure turned a water strider into an award-worthy work of art

Some photographs capture a moment. Others seem to create an entirely new reality. Anirudh Kamakeri's Layers on Water falls firmly into the second category. This dreamlike image transforms a simple water strider into what appears to be a fossil suspended in ancient ice.

Achieved through careful planning and creative camera work with his Nikon D500, it earned Kamakeri a Special Mention in the Creative Nature Photography category at the Nature InFocus photography competition.

"When I first saw the outcome, it didn't feel like a simple document of an insect on water; it looked more like a fossil sealed in ice, or a painting preserved in a glacial medium," Kamakeri recalls. The award validates his approach to wildlife photography as something that bridges "science and imagination".

Art of double exposure

Unlike traditional wildlife photography that aims to document subjects as they appear, Kamakeri deliberately set out to create something more interpretive. His tool of choice: the in-camera double exposure feature on his Nikon D500, paired with a Nikkor 16-80mm f/2.8 lens.

"This photograph came to life through this feature, which I used to weave different layers of the same scene," he explains. "The first frame focused on the reflections of leaves and drifting clouds, while the second shifted to the water strider, balanced delicately above the algae beneath the surface."

It's a technique that requires precise planning and execution. Unlike stacking images in post-processing software, in-camera double exposure means committing to your creative vision before you can see the final result. That means you have to visualize how two separate exposures will blend, considering not just composition but also how tones and textures will interact.

For this image, Kamakeri made a crucial creative decision: setting his white balance to cooler tones. This single adjustment transformed what might have been a pleasant nature scene into something otherworldly; the blues and whites evoking ice, frost and geological time… rather than the warm afternoon in Hubli, Karnataka, India when it was actually captured.

Camera choice

The D500, while not specifically marketed as a wildlife or nature photography camera, became a favorite among photographers working in these genres. Its combination of features makes it particularly well-suited for the kind of creative work Kamakeri pursues.

It was discontinued by Nikon in 2022, with the company shifting focus to its mirrorless systems, but it remains a highly capable and popular among both original customers and those snapping one up on the second-hand market.

The 20.9MP APS-C sensor might seem modest by today's standards, but it still delivers excellent image quality with strong low-light performance up to ISO12,800. More importantly for double exposure work, the slightly lower resolution compared to some competitors actually helps reduce noise; crucial when blending multiple exposures.

The camera's solid build quality, including weather sealing that makes it dust, splash and freeze-proof, means it can handle the demanding conditions near water bodies where Kamakeri does much of his work. At 760g body-only, it's substantially lighter than full-frame alternatives while maintaining the robust construction needed for fieldwork.

Creative vision

To me, what makes Layers on Water most striking is how it subverts our expectations of nature photography. Rather than trying to show us raw reality, Kamakeri has created an image that's more about feeling and interpretation.

"The water strider, with its faint ripples and fragile silhouette, became the brushstroke that signed this artwork, bridging movement and stillness," he explains. "For me, the photograph is a piece of living art, part science, part imagination, where a fleeting natural moment transforms into something timeless and fossil-like."

The leaves and clouds create a textured, painterly background that could almost be mistaken for brushstrokes on canvas. Against this, the water strider provides a focal point that anchors the image in the natural world.

The algae below adds another layer of texture and depth, visible as ghostly patterns beneath the insect. Ultimately, then, this image makes us feel as though we're looking at something ancient, somehow protected and preserved.

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Want to try this yourself? Here are five cameras with built-in double exposure features, along with tips on how to create a double exposure in-camera and how to create a double exposure in Photoshop Elements.