Clear ice is more of a spring phenomenon, so it was lovely to find patches last weekend over the colorful rocks found in Waterton Lakes National Park, AB Canada. When the winds are calm, and water with less impurities freezes slowly, air bubbles are squeezed out.
Walking on it was magical—I’ll endeavor to place the link to that video below.
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Take time for nature. Explore its ever-changing beauty.
As well my husband knows, I could look at rocks for hours. And if nature should glaze them in a layer of ice, he knows he might as well pull up a stump!
The pinks, greens, reds, and beiges of these rocks are stunning on a calm summer day submerged in the cold waters of Waterton, a mountainous park in Alberta, Canada. But on this winter morning when ice formed around nucleation sites, perhaps in this case, grains of dust or surface irregularities, the rocks were swathed in intricate lace patterns. Confirming, once again
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
John Muir
I love finding new words that speak to the optics of water. Ice has particularly spectacular variations dependent on a myriad of factors. I often photograph tiny sections of ice using my macro lens and the resulting variations are endless. Temperatures—how fast it freezes—wind, waves, thicknesses, particulates in the water can all affect the end result.
Birefringence is double refracting. Collins dictionary defines it as the splitting of a light ray, generally by a crystal, into two components that travel at different velocities and are polarized at right angles to each other.
I’ve wondered about the curious wild colors that my camera captures in these intimate, often abstract, landscapes.
After a slow start to winter, it has struck with a vengeance and with temperatures reaching -39 degrees Fahrenheit, I should have plenty of opportunities to photograph more ice.
Optics! They bring the color to winter.
Photographing ice in sub-zero temperatures isn’t for the faint of heart, but in a winter that’s been warmer than usual there haven’t been many opportunities and I’m curious. Will it freeze over this year? It’s a large lake with a fantastic assortment of birds, everchanging with the seasons. Some nights, while photographing the Northern Lights here, we could hardly speak and be heard over the vocalizing of the flocks of geese—numbering in the hundreds, possibly thousands.
As winter settles icy fingers on the landscape, paddleboards are replaced by ice-fishing huts. But not this year, not yet. Taking a break from shooting, I look around and spot a solitary observer. Sometimes I hear the eagles before I see them, but this one sat very quietly on a branch far above my head, conserving energy.
Always a good day when you’re out in nature.
Alberta, Canada, has become a popular place for filming. You might recognize some of the following movie titles—Unforgiven, The Revenant, Brokeback Mountain, and Legends of the Fall—a handful that have been shot here.
This image was not a film set from the post-apocalyptic HBO series The Last of Us, recently filmed in parts of Alberta. This fire began in the early morning hours when the temperature outside was about -16 degrees F and it’s currently under investigation. As fire crews battled the blaze, the water began freezing and for perspective, one gallon of frozen water weighs just over eight pounds.
Built in the early nineteen hundreds, this historic hotel did not survive the lethal combination of fire and the crushing weight of the ice.
I remember this hotel from when I was in my twenties. The bar was a little on the rough side but stuff like that doesn’t matter as much when you’re young and invincible.
It was impossible to get close, so I shot these using my telephoto lens. While doing so I discovered that if positioned myself just right, I could capture a rainbow. Which I did right before my bare fingers turned numb from the cold.
What I love about my life is the passion my husband and I share for nature, and we make sure to take time to appreciate whatever that brings. Sometimes it’s beautiful but other times it’s incredibly destructive.
This fire did not take any lives, but a piece of history has been lost. The building was demolished a couple of hours after these photos were taken.
Take time to appreciate the places and people that surround you—you never know when they’ll be gone forever.
a little love.
Water
Message received
On a walk with nature
Glacial rocks sheltered by ice
Fleeting
Hard edges, soft swirls.
Water surges just beneath-
Cold wintry winds blow.
pattern [ˈpadərn]
a repeated decorative design
Nature tells us everything that we need to know if we take time to study it. This might be one of my favorite ice views, sculpted by bitter cold and intense winds. Well worth the icy fingertips…
Choose only one master-nature.
Rembrandt
Some weeks are tougher than others and it’s hard to not take on what others may be going through. With that in mind today called for a road trip and as always we were not disappointed.
Some of you know me from my past life as a glass artist. My years of learning the technical side of product photography, when I had to photograph my glass for exhibit entries, reminded me of just how much I loved photography and nature, so I followed my heart and packed up my glass for good.
Today was a reminder of that past life after the right combination of wind and freezing temperatures created a glass sculpture like effect upon the shores of Waterton Lake in Alberta, Canada. Dale Chihuly is an American glass sculpture artist and much of his work lies in environmental artwork.
I remain in awe of what nature creates and today was one of those memorable ones that reminds me that it’s almost always about the water.
in me comes out.
Water is the key to life, but in frozen form, it is a latent force. And when it vanishes, Earth becomes Mars.
Frans Lanting
As temperatures continue to plummet all over the country I wanted to take a closer look at this image from a frozen spring fed lake.
It was captivating to stroll on the ice looking deep into its depths at the frozen tableau.
It feeds my fascination with water and how nothing is ever the same and each encounter shares something new.
This was congelation ice that forms underneath an existing layer of ice, building off the bottom. Then when the top layer melts, the clarity of the ice below is revealed.
And once again the natural world parallels human nature. Sometimes what you see on the surface doesn’t come close to what lies beneath…
it's (almost always) about the water... 