Ice Fern Garden

Gallery: LandscapePosted January 24, 2011279 views30 comments

I've been impressed and inspired by many of the posted ice formation images I have seen of late. I found this formation during New England's recent arctic snap on my NH porch door. This was my first attempt at blending 3 focal slices to increase depth of field. I needed to angle the camera up slightly to have the blue sky act as my backlighting source. This allowed the ice feathers and patterns to become visible - but I was unable to keep the lens parallel to the glass. The merge helped solve this problem.

Canon 5DMII
24-105L ISO 100, partial polarizing filter
Manual blend of 3 shots, f18

I needed to compress the image to 60% for upload, hopefully the detail will not suffer too greatly!

Comments

30 comments

Comment posted by Dietrich Gloger on January 24, 2011 at 2:03 PM

Fantastic. The illumination from behind is amazing, as is the composition as such. I also like the subtle hint of yellow color here and there.

Registered on January 26, 2007, 360 Posts, 9876 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Chambers on January 24, 2011 at 2:05 PM

Gorgeous. The texture and designs are incredible - looks like stained glass!

Registered on April 10, 2005, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments

Comment posted by Zack Clothier on January 24, 2011 at 2:14 PM

Very neat Harry, I was out this shooting this morning (temp was -20 here in the Adks), I didn't see anything this interesting! The top looks a little blurry to me, not sure if it's compression or a result of the blend.

Registered on January 28, 2010, 343 Posts, 2257 Comments

Comment posted by Gary McGhee on January 24, 2011 at 2:47 PM

Cracking shot Harry.

Gary.

Registered on April 15, 2010, 142 Posts, 2416 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on January 24, 2011 at 2:59 PM

Makes for an excellent abstract! Great lines and color.

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by Hamed Musharbak on January 24, 2011 at 3:06 PM

wow what a texture

i really like this Harry

well seen

Registered on June 1, 2009, 372 Posts, 2282 Comments

Comment posted by Harry Lichtman on January 24, 2011 at 3:14 PM

Zack - I checked the original file(s) and I think the compression may be partly to blame, but I also think my 3rd shot could have been sharper. I used Live View for manual focus, and selceted the point vertically up the image. I should have selected the point vertically, but at a diagonal up the image, corner to corner. This would have matched the angle that the lens was to the glass. In addition to having the lens shooting up slightly, I think the lens was turned slightly to the right which made the right corner a little softer. Lesson Learned!
Didi - Any warmth, especially in the lower portion of the image was due to a stand of beech trees receiving some direct lighting in the distance. Some other comps have this more pronounced.

Registered on September 17, 2010, 304 Posts, 3507 Comments

Comment posted by Floris van Breugel on January 24, 2011 at 3:22 PM

Lovely patterns, Harry, and well worth the extra effort to get this right. Beautiful!

Registered on December 19, 2008, 306 Posts, 4840 Comments

Comment posted by Edward Nunez on January 24, 2011 at 3:34 PM

Beautiful pattern abstract image! Great work!

Registered on April 19, 2007, 65 Posts, 711 Comments

Comment posted by Emmanuel Coupe on January 24, 2011 at 3:42 PM

Love the texture, beautifully composed

Registered on March 17, 2007, 83 Posts, 341 Comments

Comment posted by Brigitte Lorenz on January 24, 2011 at 4:33 PM

Fantastic abstract image, Harry...really fine art of nature, well done!!!!

Brigitte

Registered on January 10, 2009, 187 Posts, 1507 Comments

Comment posted by Phil Pogledich on January 24, 2011 at 4:36 PM

Excellent shot! The colors and patterns are wonderful . . .

Registered on August 24, 2009, 123 Posts, 3099 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on January 24, 2011 at 6:14 PM

Harry,

Wow, the details in the original or a nice print would sure be amazing. Sure, some has been lost here, but this is not without impact! Beautiful light and color among all the natural details of the ice. Looks like an excellent job with the focus blend as well. No nits or suggestions. this is just gorgeous.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Paul Breitkreuz on January 24, 2011 at 7:18 PM

Harry, it looks as though your efforts paid off very nicely here. The idea to work out the DOF issue no doubt added to enhancing the finished product overall. Even with the compression factor the image comes across very well.

Registered on February 25, 2006, 525 Posts, 8448 Comments

Comment posted by Paul Marcellini on January 24, 2011 at 7:33 PM

Wonderful, I really enjoy looking at this one.

Registered on November 27, 2007, 250 Posts, 2468 Comments

Comment posted by Joseph Rossbach on January 24, 2011 at 7:54 PM

Awesome, awesome, awesome

Registered on November 25, 2005, 484 Posts, 1377 Comments

Comment posted by Eva McDermott on January 24, 2011 at 8:21 PM

Love the blues and fractal shapes Harry! Well seen and captured. Wish I could find such a wonderful abstract on my NH porch door! Phenomenal shapes and lines! Yes, beautiful work!

Registered on January 4, 2009, 1015 Posts, 13229 Comments

Comment posted by dean hebert on January 24, 2011 at 8:40 PM

Love it! For a 2 dimentional image this looks very 3 dimentional.

Registered on August 4, 2010, 70 Posts, 1132 Comments

Comment posted by scott lanz on January 24, 2011 at 9:06 PM

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Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on January 24, 2011 at 9:28 PM

The lines and details here are great, Harry. A wonderful natural pattern.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Grant Collier on January 24, 2011 at 10:54 PM

I've seen a lot of ice images, but this one has a uniqueness to its patterns and textures that I haven't seen before.

Registered on July 29, 2005, 73 Posts, 430 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Chamberlain on January 24, 2011 at 11:18 PM

Awesome! never seen anything quite like this. It looks like a fossil!

Chris

Registered on March 13, 2007, 500 Posts, 8365 Comments

Comment posted by Jimmy Gekas on January 24, 2011 at 11:48 PM

Awesome textures and shapes all around. I love it.

Registered on July 26, 2007, 244 Posts, 2807 Comments

Comment posted by Barry Ashenhurst on January 25, 2011 at 1:17 AM

I like this Harry. It's subtle and the patterns are gorgeous. It's eveything we don't see down here in Oz, and I guess that's part of the appeal.

Registered on August 4, 2009, 253 Posts, 455 Comments

Comment posted by Balakumar Kaushik on January 25, 2011 at 4:14 AM

Beautiful light reflecting off the ice surface. Some amazing textures. Very well seen & neatly made image.

Registered on January 4, 2008, 98 Posts, 1403 Comments

Comment posted by Stuart Williams on January 25, 2011 at 9:21 AM

fascinating - looks like an aerial shot of some fractured landscape! great lines and textures. well seen

Registered on December 7, 2007, 247 Posts, 4792 Comments

Comment posted by Rafael Rojas on January 25, 2011 at 1:05 PM

I can stay years looking at this image Harry. Really well executed and the play of lines and textures make you imagine lots of things...Great image!

Registered on March 1, 2009, 56 Posts, 623 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on January 25, 2011 at 2:21 PM

Really nice, Harry. Fantastic image!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Bruce King on January 25, 2011 at 3:43 PM

Nice Harry. It kinda looks like an Arctic version of the Nasca Lines.

Registered on January 14, 2010, 276 Posts, 2212 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Roane on January 26, 2011 at 1:09 AM

wow! outstanding image Harry!

Registered on December 12, 2008, 213 Posts, 2226 Comments