Water- 1/14/11

       Living in North Idaho the weather is pretty much all over the place.  Temperatures ranging anywhere from 2 degrees up to 40 degrees mid winter.  To say the least, it's stupid.  I am not really a fan of it snowing 12 inches and then two days later it warms up and rains.  Ideally, it would be nice if the weather just stayed consistent and snowed all the time.  As a result of this time of unfortunate, drastic weather changes opportunities of capturing different photos arose.  The ice on Hayden lake has been frozen for awhile now, but since this rain has come, different water wholes (ranging from 1 to 2 feet in diameter) spread out over the ice around the shore line.  I saw it and thought there could potentially be a good chance of a photo turning out.  Overall, I think the photos turned out pretty good.  Even though this rain has shot me into a spiraling, deep, dark, never ending depression, I still happened to make something cool turn out of this dark hole I've been in as a result of these last couple of days.  

• I know no one really checks my blog, but anyone by chance that does, it would be much appreciated if you left some type of comment.  By all means, chew me out, throw me under the bus, judge me, and tell me what I should do better.  I don't care what you leave if you could just  leave something, that would be like pretty cool man and you would be pretty rad in my opinion!

• Editing: For most of these pictures the editing was generally the same. I explained how I edited the first photo under the first photo and the rest of the photos were edited the same as the first one. 

ISO: 400 SS: 1/40 F: 5.6

The top layer of this photo is a thin sheet of ice around a foot in diameter water whole.  I had to time the shot just right to get the ice to be filled with water to get this type of look to turn out verse the type of look of the picture below.  I waited until a wave came up and pushed the air out of the ice pocket filling it with water, making it a little clearer to see   the pebbles below the ice and water.  I really like how the white pebble on the left side of the photo turned out pretty clear through the ice.  Editing wise, I just bumped the contrast up quite a bit to make the outline of the ice pop out a little better, so the ice could easily be distinguished from the water.  I then bumped the clarity a little bit just so the ice detail popped out a little bit. 

ISO: 400 SS: 1/40 F: 4.0

I don't like this shot as much because you can't see as easily through the water.  I also wish I darkened the ice a little bit more now that I think about it.  The good thing about this photo is you can tell a little easier of what is going on and the detail around the ice pops out pretty well at you.  I do wish though, that the bottom part of this photo was clearer on the ice and darker but we aren't in a perfect world so that explains why didn't happen.  The editing for all these photos were generally the same so I won't explain it under every picture. 

ISO: 400 SS: 1/40 F: 5.0

I really like how this photo turned out. Its just great.  I love how the end of the ice  at the top  of the photo almost looks like glass.  It looks like the glass that has just been finished from being made and has that hot glow look to it.  I think it's cool how most of the focus is on the ice but at the bottom of the photo some of the pebbles through the ice stayed pretty clear as the result of the ice.  I'm pretty sure that certain parts of the ice helped magnify the pebbles and contributed in making them turn out clearer than they should be. 

ISO: 400 SS: 1/100 F: 4.5

Ok so the whiter ice bubbles are as a result of air being shoved up into the ice.  The other darker, more clear ice is from a wave that pushed water back up into the ice.  I like how the ice starts out clear but then half way through the ice it turns to a more realistic, wintery ice color.  I thought that was pretty rad. 

ISO: 200 SS: 125 F: 5.6

ISO: 200 SS: 1/200 F: 5.0

On this one, I wanted those photo to look more like winter ice verse the clear ice on the pictures above.  To get  this to turn out, I just changed my position on the ice that the light shined off the ice making it look a little more white and crystal like.  Also, I took this picture at the right time where there was more air in the is verse water. 

ISO: 200 SS: 1/200 F: 4.5

ISO: 200 SS: 1/200 F: 3.5

Ok, so when I first look at this photo my eye immediately goes to the yellow orange spot at the top of the photo because that is the most colorful spot in the picture.  After my eye initially goes to that spot it then goes to the line of ice that formed around the rock. Once my eye hits that ice, I follow it to the bottom right corner where it goes out of the picture.  Then from there my eye sees the ice because that's the next thing in line to look at. To tell the truth, I wouldn't say that the yellow, orange tree in the middle is the focus but I do think it is necessary to lead you to the main focus of the picture.  I would probably say that the rock and ice around the rock are the main focus. 

ISO: 200 SS: 1/200 F: 5.6

This picture is nice but I would like it a lot more if the trees in the background were mountains covered with a bunch of white snow and if the water was like glass, rather than being ripply.   Besides that though, I like how this photo played out.  I believe it shows the feeling of freedom.  The duck is leading to the end of the dock and will be free to the rest of the open lake.  

ISO: 200 SS: 1/200 F: 5.6

I got my inspiration from Sonja Braas.  He has some cool nature and natural disaster photos. And since I was shooting ice and water features, I figured he was the person I got my inspiration from. Props to him for getting some of those intense natural disaster shots. 

http://www.sonjabraas.com/