Sculpture and Shimmer
In the transition between dawn and daylight, amazing methane formations tier like sculptures in the ice layers worn smooth and clear by the incessant gales whipping across the dark glaze covering the glacier-born waters of Abraham Lake, Alberta, Canada.
By way of extreme understatement, suffice it to say a lot has changed in the world since I last posted some months ago. The present challenges and loss affecting much of the world surely reveal the relative triviality of things like photography, but even so I've found taking a moment on my computer and reconnecting with photography to be quite comforting. I've always found the beauty of nature quite a salve to the stresses of the world, and this feeling apparently holds even when nature has interposed a good bit of the stress.
This image comes from an impromptu outing Sky and I quickly put together back in January after we saw a weather forecast predicting that temperatures at Abraham Lake--which had been hovering around 40 below zero (the cold, cold point on the thermometer where Celsius and Fahrenheit align)--would rise just a few days later to a much more palatable range but without getting warm enough to soften the surface layer of ice and thus destroy the transparency so crucial to revealing the beautiful methane forms within the ice.
We were intent on going when it was a bit warmer because everything we'd read over the years described the lake's surface as being scoured by winds of such persistent ferocity and frigidity as to be almost beyond belief to someone from warmer and calmer latitudes. And the wind speeds were as advertised! Stories you may have heard--like your tripod skidding away from you as if under sail the moment you release it from your grasp?--well, they're true!
But, as always, the sometimes challenging conditions only heightened the experience, even if it was quite a trick to get a steady shot during the windiest stretches. Though we had only a short visit, I found Abraham Lake to be one of the most beautiful and varied photographic locations I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing, and the subtle hues around sunrise on this morning only increased my feeling.
Thanks for viewing!
Sculpture and Shimmer
In the transition between dawn and daylight, amazing methane formations tier like sculptures in the ice layers worn smooth and clear by the incessant gales whipping across the dark glaze covering the glacier-born waters of Abraham Lake, Alberta, Canada.
By way of extreme understatement, suffice it to say a lot has changed in the world since I last posted some months ago. The present challenges and loss affecting much of the world surely reveal the relative triviality of things like photography, but even so I've found taking a moment on my computer and reconnecting with photography to be quite comforting. I've always found the beauty of nature quite a salve to the stresses of the world, and this feeling apparently holds even when nature has interposed a good bit of the stress.
This image comes from an impromptu outing Sky and I quickly put together back in January after we saw a weather forecast predicting that temperatures at Abraham Lake--which had been hovering around 40 below zero (the cold, cold point on the thermometer where Celsius and Fahrenheit align)--would rise just a few days later to a much more palatable range but without getting warm enough to soften the surface layer of ice and thus destroy the transparency so crucial to revealing the beautiful methane forms within the ice.
We were intent on going when it was a bit warmer because everything we'd read over the years described the lake's surface as being scoured by winds of such persistent ferocity and frigidity as to be almost beyond belief to someone from warmer and calmer latitudes. And the wind speeds were as advertised! Stories you may have heard--like your tripod skidding away from you as if under sail the moment you release it from your grasp?--well, they're true!
But, as always, the sometimes challenging conditions only heightened the experience, even if it was quite a trick to get a steady shot during the windiest stretches. Though we had only a short visit, I found Abraham Lake to be one of the most beautiful and varied photographic locations I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing, and the subtle hues around sunrise on this morning only increased my feeling.
Thanks for viewing!