diff --git a/doc/api/api_changes/2017-11-25-JMK.rst b/doc/api/api_changes/2017-11-25-JMK.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..333e7c29b8d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/api/api_changes/2017-11-25-JMK.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+`.Axes.get_position` now returns actual position if aspect changed
+------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+`.Axes.get_position` used to return the original position unless a
+draw had been triggered or `.Axes.apply_aspect` had been called, even
+if the kwarg *original* was set to *False*.   Now `.Axes.apply_aspect`
+is called so ``ax.get_position()`` will return the new modified position.
+To get the old behaviour, ``ax.get_position(original=True)``.  
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py
index f7819aaf9fd8..b7eff33f1985 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_base.py
@@ -859,6 +859,7 @@ def get_position(self, original=False):
         if original:
             return self._originalPosition.frozen()
         else:
+            self.apply_aspect()
             return self._position.frozen()
 
     def set_position(self, pos, which='both'):
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/colorbar.py b/lib/matplotlib/colorbar.py
index c0a56570a542..f1a8e2c0c610 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/colorbar.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/colorbar.py
@@ -1164,7 +1164,7 @@ def make_axes(parents, location=None, orientation=None, fraction=0.15,
 
     # transform each of the axes in parents using the new transform
     for ax in parents:
-        new_posn = shrinking_trans.transform(ax.get_position())
+        new_posn = shrinking_trans.transform(ax.get_position(original=True))
         new_posn = mtransforms.Bbox(new_posn)
         ax.set_position(new_posn)
         if parent_anchor is not False:
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_axes.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_axes.py
index 6f3d513e4fbf..3c21dc1d850b 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_axes.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_axes.py
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@
 import matplotlib.markers as mmarkers
 import matplotlib.patches as mpatches
 import matplotlib.colors as mcolors
-from numpy.testing import assert_allclose, assert_array_equal
+from numpy.testing import (
+    assert_allclose, assert_array_equal, assert_array_almost_equal)
 from matplotlib.cbook import (
     IgnoredKeywordWarning, MatplotlibDeprecationWarning)
 from matplotlib.cbook._backports import broadcast_to
@@ -4828,6 +4829,12 @@ def test_square_plot():
     xlim, ylim = ax.get_xlim(), ax.get_ylim()
     assert np.diff(xlim) == np.diff(ylim)
     assert ax.get_aspect() == 'equal'
+    assert_array_almost_equal(
+            ax.get_position(original=True).extents,
+            np.array((0.125, 0.1, 0.9, 0.9)))
+    assert_array_almost_equal(
+        ax.get_position(original=False).extents,
+        np.array((0.2125, 0.1, 0.8125, 0.9)))
 
 
 def test_no_None():