Winter Lace
We hadn’t had an ice storm in years, so I excitedly peaked through the blinds when I woke up... only to be disappointed. Instead of ice covered trees gleaming in early morning light, I saw another dreary day. Sure, the trees were covered in ice… but it was just so dark and dreary.
I decided to go out with the camera anyway, and made my way to a local woodland. As I was unloading my cameras, I started to get excited. The light was getting better with each minute and I began walking faster. I needed to make a great photo before the ice melted. The pressure was on... there were only three days left in February and I needed to create an image worthy of a blog post. If I didn’t make a good picture today, I would be forced to dig into the archives for this month’s post - which I have rarely done in eight years!
This is exactly the WRONG approach to make good pictures. I was moving around very fast, feeling the pressure, and just not really seeing anything. It was all so chaotic… ice covered branches, grasses, and shrubs. So I decided to slow down and eliminate the need to make an image. If I saw something worthy, great! If I didn’t, then so be it. And as I slowed down, images started to come to me. They weren’t all great, but some were good and I became more receptive to the landscape around me... I saw more clearly.
I arrived at a nice open area in the woodland. The ice covered branches and shrubs looked like winter’s lace adorning the trees, and the grasses on the hillside added some nice color. I was pretty sure this would be the image of the day. After patiently setting up and carefully composing, I made several images. And then I made some more as the sun came out and lit up the scene.
But, you know what happens when the sun hits ice on trees? It melts… all at once! And so eight hours of freezing rain from the night before started to melt very quickly. And I was caught in the wintertime equivalent of a tropical rain storm. I was soaked, my equipment was soaked, my shoes were soaked, and it was cold. But what a memorable ending to a morning wandering around in an ice covered woodland.