Putting it on ice

Published on by Laura Bloomsbury

As late as yesterday ice preoccupied
the pond—dark, half-melted, waterlogged.

Ice Out -Jane Kenyon

The local fishing lake – a familiar subject for my photography and after several freezing days, the water was only just starting to thaw. When I looked at the photos later I was disappointed – if I like an image I literally feel its impact in my body. None of these effected me then- so I put them away, on ice as it were.

Reviewing them a couple of days later, I was much more enthusiastic but remembered being pulled by all the different aspects of the lake that I wanted to capture. Should I have stayed with just the one?

first and foremost it was the afternoon light creating silvery blue horizontals

then it was…

the gritty textures and shapes where the thicknesses of ice varied

I also remember being struck by…

the sheer tenacity of life to withstand this icy grip

and then I recalled my current read “The Mindful Photographer” – a slower, stiller approach where minimalism can have an impact:-

Perhaps I was chasing just the one impactful capture – this one was it for me, with its ambiguous surfaces and no immediate sense of up or down

Conclusion: Yes I was probably running after too many aspects, being too hasty and eager perhaps, and then of course I usually photograph the lake with my Panasonic Lumix and 50mm lens – here the Ricoh GRiii created somethings differently. Most of all I could have tuned in more closely to the feeling of the ice and all it symbolises.

Intense cold makes water ice.
Then the hard ice turns to slush
and back to water, so there are three
forms of consciousness: the individual,
the world, and God, which in the sun
of True Awareness melt to one flowing:

Lalleshari

14 thoughts on “Putting it on ice”

  1. I think a lot if us just get overexcited when we come across something different and try to take as many shots as possible. I actually like the third from the end with its steely sheen, the little green shoots contrasting with the grey and the patterns of a butterfly and a waterlily leaf. I just find that one most attractive.

    1. It should be called headless chicken photography – I like that one too Jude because it smacks of life and growth but I had not noticed the butterfly!

  2. I think the light and the subtle color changes in all of them give them a common context. That’s what stands out for me. (K)

  3. I always take (too) many shots just in case… The first one here captured my attention, and although I like the others as well, I scrolled back up to the first, it just resonated the most.

  4. Suppose I need challenge myself to appreciate your work with newer words image to image. Your work resonates in a welcome sensibility. The first, yes, both subtle and well pronounced – shape and soft contrast and shadow and, oh my, color, yes, pick of the litter. And your other chosen one (9th I think) I understand – the texture is more than physical. That small branch bridging what seems two sheets of the ice – meaning where meaning needn’t be.

    That all said, something somehow disturbed me here. Think I don’t like Winter so much, nor cousin ice. I feel unwelcome there I suppose. And why my second favored is the 8th with green shoots warming and rising up through the ice.

    All well done. All appreciated.

    1. and I return with thanks Neil for how your feedback “resonates in a welcome sensibility”

      it is a landscape I too feel estranged from – longing for the thaw, the signs of Spring though it has a beauty personified in the figure of snow queen

  5. These are wonderful, Laura. The ice creates such amazing abstracts… it’s so hard to stop clicking away, isn’t it?! I love all of them, each for different reasons. Maybe slightly more first and last [open view and closeup].

    1. dare I say its enticing? thanks for your input Marina – hope you are having a warmer weekend than these images here – but yes the abstractions and patterns make up for the cold

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