One of the more interesting manifestations of frozen water is the refreeze. The surface of the ice melts during a warm day leaving a puddle above some still frozen ice. When night comes and the temperature drops, the meltwater freezes and patterns are created. The new ice is also lifted as it shrinks above the lower ice creating air space that allows the shapes to form. Recently, David (Welcome to Pairodox) posted about random actions in nature. This image is a fine example of a bit of Nature’s Chaos.
Absolutely unpredictable and, while similar formations can be found, it is highly unlikely that anything exactly the same will ever be created. Here’s another from several years back.
I’ll happily, after the fact, suffer cold fingers for such as these.
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
Many thanks for the mention Steve. Both of these, and especially the first one, look like delicate drawings in charcoal. Beautiful. As I sit at the table, absorb morning coffee, and look out the window, I can only hope that there will be one or two more opportunities to photograph winter before it slips away. It’s 50F right now and they’re calling for 65F later in the day. Judging from the ruts I left in the driveway yesterday I think it’s fair to say that Mud Season has begun up here.
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Thanks, David. In the 50’s here as well with 1/2-3/4 inch of rain on the way. Should bode well for continued flow but not so much for continued winter. We have a frost or two in the offing but probably not enough to create ice.
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The “helter-skelter” that I used to describe elbowbush flowers and lichen does double duty on these two appealing ice patterns. I can see you doing a collection of images called Refreeze. If you didn’t think it was faking the phenomenon, you could even create before/after images by finding and photographing ice formations, pouring water over each, then photograph them again after they refreeze. (Notice how readily I volunteer your fingers to endure the cold.)
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I don’t think it would be faking as the phenomenon would be the same. William Neill did similar a few years ago with a bucket of water.
Yes, it’s much easier for others to volunteer someone for hazardous duty.
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As I was putting out the garbage can this morning, several tens of thousands of grackles flew overhead. The river of them went on for a long time. A few hundred stragglers stopped in the tree next door for a while. They were very noisy. Wish I’d had a camera.
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If you were a few decades younger you probably would have had a smart phone with you even while putting out the garbage.
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When you mention a river of grackles it reminded me of accounts of passenger pigeons flying overhead in endless streams of individuals. Some described the flights as lasting all day…almost like an eclipse of the sun. 😉
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Now that’s a coincidence: just two days ago I was telling someone about the enormous flocks of passenger pigeons we used to have in the United States—so soon all sadly gone.
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Those must have been amazing.
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I am sure that it was. Unfortunately, it also made for easy hunting which led to what was probably the fastest case of extinction in recorded history.
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I’m especially fond of the second photo. The triangular trio reaching from the center to the bottom and bottom right reminds me of opening seed pods, especially those in the pea family. I didn’t expect an ice photo to remind me of favorite summer flowers, like deer pea or rattlebush, but there you are: random associations.
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It is amazing that some things remind of of other totally unrelated objects. I appreciate your choice of images. It is gratifying to have an older image preferred over something recent which seems odd. I like to think that my photography improves with time, but it is also nice to have verification that the older efforts were worthwhile as well. Henri Cartier-Bresson said the “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst”.
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Well. Far be it from me to disagree with Henri, but to a degree, I do. If you’re only talking technical detail, of course there will be improvement, but magic can appear for any viewer at any time.
It’s a constant source of amusement for me that my most-read post — by far — is one I wrote in my first months of blogging. It has readers every, single week: not because of my writing, but because I just happened to write about Leonard Cohen and the real-life Suzanne.
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Well, I tend to agree with you regarding an experience. But the technical allows us to capture the magic better and years of visual practice teaches us to see the magic more clearly and to see more of it. When I look at much of my older work I realize that there was lots of room for improvement.
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Interesting compostion – Love the heading!
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Thanks, sol. I was waiting for someone to appreciate what I thought was a witty title. 😉
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