I can’t resist the call of the river, even at (especially at?) -25c. The way the cold transforms the landscape is always captivating and I especially love visiting the places where the water runs fast and manages to defy the freezing temperatures. It can be difficult to truly capture the majesty of the winter wonderland but perhaps that is part of what keeps me coming back.
Karen McRae, 2015
It seems the river has been pitching itself against the shoreline in the cold and wind, frosting whatever it could manage to touch before its own edges are too frozen to move. Unfortunately, by the time I managed to get out the light was very dull, but at the moment there is new snow falling, and by morning the landscape will be transformed again. These fringes of the seasons can be so fleeting.
© Karen McRae, 2014
The river ice is breaking up slowly. Shifting a little everyday in the sun and wind and really coming open where there are strong undercurrents. I was a little surprised to see this snapping turtle floating at the frayed edges of the ice, able to lift its head for air but otherwise shifting with the water like a piece of driftwood, too cold to move. It’s been a long winter for everybody and spring has been tentative. We have land now, though. Earth, mud, grit and weathered grasses. The snow is mostly gone, we are just waiting on the river…
© Karen McRae, 2014
Cold enough for a rebirth of frost.
Shards assembling themselves
like a phoenix rising from damp ashes.
Cold enough for all-day sundogs
those almost rainbows – a compass around the sun.
Cold enough to feel alive
in the bright rays
in the cadence of the water
in the crisp beauty.
Cold enough to feel
until you go
numb.
°
© Karen McRae, 2014
© Karen McRae, 2014
This is what happens when an ice breathing dragon is trapped between 2 pieces of glass; your windows frost up and the temperature plummets.
Technically, this window has failed; there should not be moisture, frost, or dragons(!) trapped between the sealed panes, but I like to think of it as a literal ‘silver’ lining. Technical failure can lead to interesting things…
Happy New Year!
[These window frost photographs were made today – I have posted similar frost a few times last winter but it is always reinventing itself]
© Karen McRae, 2013
It’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.
A closeup of feather frost on an icy surface
As 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.
A 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
Marbled meltwater.
© Karen McRae, 2013
These are the delicate details of frost growth on a window. It has since warmed up here significantly and these icy apparitions have now vapourized but when I look at these images I find they are suggestive of elaborate gardens and graceful trees, Chinese landscape paintings and dragons.
© Karen McRae, 2013
draw and shoot 