Landscape

Cold Blue

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ColdBlue1It’s hard to resist the beauty of a really cold morning (-25c early this morning, according to our thermometre). At the edge of the rapids the turbulent water shifts the forming ice into different shapes and during the cold nights the surfaces grow carpets of feathery frost. The horizon is lost in a fog of water vapour.

FeatherFrost3A closeup of feather frost on an icy surface

GoldenEyeDucksAs I was out making photographs I spotted many brave ducks that seem to be willing to tough it out and spend the winter in and around the open water. Pictured are a couple of shy goldeneye ducks above, and what I think is an American black duck below.
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The-Misted-CityA little glimpse of the city which is not far away

[Similar ice compositions to a post I did last year here, but the cold is a month earlier!]

© Karen McRae, 2013

Gold & Silver

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GoldenMussel shells just under the surface and golden light on ice

Flight-and-fall2A chickadee in flight and leaves in the creek

It’s quite cold here now. Yesterday I bundled up and spent several hours outside. The birds were very busy foraging for food and the chickadees were especially friendly. They would land on my shoulder or hand, unexpectedly, expectantly. A gentle whirring sound of wings in my ears. And the most tender questioning “peep peep” from a nuthatch that flitted close by, wondering too, if I had little seeds in my pockets. I did.

As it becomes very cold the landscape transforms in strange and wonderful ways. The ice forming at river’s edge is bordering on Seussian but I haven’t yet found a way to make good photographs. Photographs that show the magic of it. Part of the fun is trying to figure that out, I suppose. Anyway, if you are looking for gold and silver, it’s not far away. You just might have to dress warm.

StarlingsWater reflections and starlings in flight ~ there seems to be a flock of them hanging around for the winter

© Karen McRae, 2013

Wintery

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FirstSnow2Passing glimpses of yesterday’s snowfall – the first of the autumn. This morning the temperature has been creeping up and the short-lived snow has been replaced by rain.

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[These images were taken from a moving car – lazy, I know…]

© Karen McRae, 2013

(Previously) Unreleased

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The-Wrapped-Trees2These are not recently photographed wrapped trees but they are different from the ones I have posted before. It seemed an appropriate day to let these swathed creatures out for some fresh air.

[More wrapped trees can be found here.]

© Karen McRae, 2013

Fall by the Wayside 2

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RedSumacsIn ‘Technicolo(u)r’.
The colour is actually true to the photograph. There was that lovely warm light of late afternoon and I was using a polarizing filter which brings out those autumn colours and intensifies the blue of the sky. I find it all a bit frenzied but these are the flitting colours of the season and here they are hastening by.

[An image made from two photographs, both of which were made from a moving car.]

© Karen McRae, 2013