Beauty in Ice

Sometimes as a photographer you can take a picture and as you take it you think “this shot is going to be great”. Other times you think “why am I even taking this picture” or “is this shot worth it”. The story behind this image is a combination of all these sentiments.

I had finally gotten my macro lens just as fall was ending and winter was setting in. As a result, I had not had much time to explore the natural world with my new macro setup. Cold weather and my busy life in general, kept me from going out to explore the macro universe around me. On this winter’s day, I took my camera out in hopes of getting one of those perfect snowflake shots I had seen online. After many disastrous tries at snowflakes (they were mostly melted & mushed together making it impossible to get that perfect shot), with shot after shot ending with my wondering why I was even taking these pictures I turned my attention to the ice on the plants around me.

Unlike the mushy snow and half melted snowflakes the ice looked crisp and inviting through my lens. So, I decided to explore the ice on the bushes and vines along the back yard fence and came across this configuration of ice on some vine tendrils. I was mesmerized by the beauty of the ice. It looked almost jewel like. The details in the ice stood out against the dark background of the bushes.

The resulting shot of all this effort is this beautiful texture of ice and vine tendrils that looks very much like a piece of jewelry. The artistic feel of the image is almost one of a formal sculpture and not a collection of water droplets forming as ice around part of a plant. It is a capture that as I was taking it, I said to myself that this shot is worth it. It’s worth standing here in the freezing cold to get. I know this will look great when I go inside, warm up and look at it on my computer. And of course, I was right. This image looks great!

While I still hope to one day capture an image of a snowflake standing alone against a beautiful background, I am very satisfied with this beautiful macro ice sculpture I managed to capture on this cold winter’s day. It remains to this day one of my favorite images.