Iced
London, Ontario, February 2007 [Click to embiggen]
Sometimes, all you need to do is look out your front door for a bit of inspiration. Because we'd been having a series of bitterly cold nights followed by very bright, sunny days, the eaves on the edge of our roof froze up solid before gradually melting under the warming sun. It was like an ongoing ballet of opposing forces, and the net result was a collection of really chunky icicles.
I popped the external flash onto my camera - it puts out a prodigious amount of light, which makes for much brighter surface detail than I could ever get with the camera's little built-in flash. I suppose I could have done a long exposure, but I wanted to play with artificial light, and figured the optical equivalent of a sledgehammer was as effective a strategy as any. (See this entry for an earlier, daylight perspective from the same place.)
Your turn: I'm still playing with ice, apparently, and I suspect there are more ice pictures in my future. Why does frozen water beg to be captured in this way?
Hey great minds think alike, although my ice shots from the other day were wider angle shots. I think that before all our snow and ice dissappears I should look at the closeups too as it is in the 40s this morning and temps are rising fast. You gotta love Indiana from one extreme to the other overnignt. Will also try the flash but I have a Mets 60-CT4 which is a bit of a dinosaur to cart around (I still like it more in manual mode than the TTL flash I had before 550 EX which I hated.
ReplyDeleteHave a great day
Lori
even a little child can be mesmerized by the seeming "contradiction" in an icicle...it's BOTH a "solid" AND a "liquid"...it's obviously so completely unique and unusual, just by its very nature. and, it can be exquisitely beautiful - much like a snowflake, in which no two are exactly alike. BTW, both of your recent photos of ice are truly lovely. it's always been a favorite subject of mine, as well.
ReplyDeleteVery cool!
ReplyDeleteAhhh, our latest ice storm had icicles hanging from each and every branch on every tree. When the sun poked through and caught the icicles it looked like a wintertime chandelier!
ReplyDeleteI think because water isn't suppose to be solid..at least most of us don't think of it that way...so its terribly fascinating. great shot!
ReplyDeleteWhen I say cool Carmi, I mean it looks chilly! And it does remind me of bones that you might see at a museum....
ReplyDeleteI like it.
Love the shot today Carmi! I can't talk about ice really as it never gets that cold here :o( Just rainy, cloudy and miserable! Hope you have a good day :o)
ReplyDeleteHow amazing...it really does look like an icy spine! Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteBecause it is an element of motion caught in non-motion.
ReplyDeleteI have ice in my fridge, that may not offer a great photo but I'll try to think of something...
Wish we had some outdoor ice to photograph here in the UK - it's one of the things I miss the most - lovely wintry winters! (Okay, I miss the hot summers too, and the riot of colour in the autumn when the leaves change)
ReplyDeleteNo two icicles are the same; in that respect they are much like snowflakes although not quite so ephemeral. I just love the ripples and curves and lines of them.
Thank you for giving me a little piece of home today Carmi!
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I've been thinking that I'm glad I don't have to deal with ice damming in the gutters this year for the first time in decades and then I saw this photo. I miss icicles. Thanks for reminding me how beautiful they can be.
ReplyDeleteWater molecules are polar, and therefore crave the limelight.
ReplyDeleteCool pic! I think ice is a bit of an optical illusion. The light that is cast off and reflected distracts my eye from doing it's job. My mind wants to believe that I can see right through it, but my eyes aren't able to. So, I tend to look around it, enjoy the shimmer, shine and sleekness. I think I sometimes try to find the point when ice ceases to be transparent and therein lies my fixation.
ReplyDeleteGlossy odd reflective shapes. Moving liquid frozen in time. Those icicles are just begging to have Carmi take a picture of them during their short time here on earth in that form!
ReplyDelete"Icy Spine" indeed.
ReplyDeleteWe got layers and layers of ice and I spent three days taking all kinds of photos. It was a blast. Then a neighbor told me they had water coming in their front wall from an ice dam.
ReplyDeleteI spent the next whole day using any method possible to clear off my roofline and gutters.
Great photo.
I like your description of your pictures....it adds so much more
ReplyDeleteGreat macro shot.I like it!Good job!
ReplyDeleteI think I prefer this photo to the daylight one actually. I love how the light has caught the surface of the icicle.
ReplyDeleteThis one says "Totum pole" to me, as at the top it appears to have the eyes, nose, mouth- ontop of a stack...
ReplyDeleteSorry for ignoring the question in favor of the image's impression of form upon my imagination-