A few months ago on Photography Life, I wrote about my experiences photographing a sheet of crystalline ice structures on the frozen surface of a pond. Not long after writing that article, a rare sunny day with a bright blue sky sent me out to the pond again.
With no expectations other than to enjoy the day, I was pleasantly surprised to find a small expanse of ice was still preserved in a quiescent corner of the pond. The morning sun had already begun to melt the ice, but a plethora of photogenic patterns and shapes remained!
A closer view shows the reflection of a bright sun-lit tree trunk, emphasizing the abundant and large crystal formations, as well as the open water occurring within some structures.
At the water’s edge, the submerged yellow reeds show how thin the melting, translucent ice film was at the time.
As you can image from the first two images, trying to select aesthetically-pleasing compositions from among the many possibilities proved quite difficult – there were too many choices, and the ice was melting fast!
Instead of wasting time searching for perfection, I set my Panasonic Lumix G95 and the attached Lumix PZ 45-175mm f/4.0-5.6 to Aperture Priority, chose f/5.6 to f/8.0 for sufficient depth of field, and started taking photos.
I let the camera’s Auto ISO range wherever it wanted, knowing that the abundant sunlight and bright reflective ice surface would keep the ISO within reasonable limits. With an ISO-linked minimum shutter speed of 1/400s and Dual IS enabled, I felt assured of sharp photos.
The following four images illustrate the effect that slight shooting position changes had on the appearance and perspective of the images. The dots of light sparkling in the second photograph were unexpected mini-sunstars – next time, I’ll try an aperture of f/11 or smaller to emphasize these!
The following crop is a closer view of the preceding image. It shows regions of ice-free open water in among the triangles. The blue sky reflected off the water’s surface appears as smooth, featureless areas.
The interiors of the two triangles show open water, or an extremely thin ice veneer.
With such an enormous assortment of possible images to take, it became very difficult to choose any “best” one, even after culling them back home. Consequently, I selected the following photographs as abstract compositions to display the variety of exquisite structural forms and complex intersecting angles.
These photographs were lightly processed with Radiant Photo for color and contrast adjustments. I cropped most images to isolate specific visual features, while performing noise reduction and sharpening using Topaz Sharpen AI.
All in all, I enjoyed a wonderful few hours of photography chasing fast-melting ice structures. There’s something poignant about photographing ephemeral subjects like these, before they vanish forever in the warm morning sunshine!
About Carl F. Brink
A career in gemology, geology, and metallurgical engineering enabled Carl to develop his photography skills documenting various geological exposures and outcrops. He excelled at macro and photomicrography of rock and mineral specimens.
His image-making efforts over the years in his photographic niche were rewarded by selection for industry-related publications; he has a number of magazine cover photos to his credit.
Presently residing in Michigan, he now concentrates his photography on the nature and wildlife opportunities so abundant in the state. You can contact him here.