Blue Forest Etched in Frost

I have two abstract images for you today, courtesy of the weather, which has been very interesting lately. We had snow on Monday, and a mix of precipitation that evening. Tuesday morning found our cars covered in frost designs and solidly frozen over. When the light came, I went outside with my camera and shot through the car windows straight into the light.

Above is one of my frost abstracts; the scene looked like a blue forest to me. The technique for making one is simple, and I don't mind sharing it. Find some frosty windows. Set your camera on a "vivid" (super-saturated) setting, if you have one. Shoot through the windows into the light, at different angles. When you upload the photos to the computer, feel free to bump up color saturation, contrast, and definition. Voila! Frosty window art!

In the afternoon, my husband and I walked up to the gameland, just to the first little pond that I love, for the path was slick with mud, snow, and ice. In the extras, I've included a shot of the reflections and leaves. There was slush on the pond, which gave it all some extra textures that reminded me of pointillism, an Impressionist painting technique in which little dots of color are placed on a canvas to form an image.

As I was standing by the pond, I was thinking about a question: Why do we love the things we love? In particular, I was thinking of this little pond, which might have become some sort of tiny Walden to me. I love this pond, and I keep coming back to see what it will reveal to me each time.

I have seen it teeming with amazing amounts of amphibian life. I have photographed its reflections at every time of year. I have touched its ice, stepped in its water, slid in its mud, chased its tiny red dragonflies and its tiny turtles all along the edges. I have enjoyed every aspect of it.

And on this day, it was covered in slush, but it was still lovely and transformative and calming, in the way that still water always is. (By the way, when the gods play tic-tac-toe, they do it with leaves, and tree reflections, on icy slush.)

I usually include a soundtrack song and here's a personal favorite: Pat Benatar, with Fire and Ice. Man, that girl can SING!