November 24, 2010

Photography of Ice is so fun, and challenging!

Mendenhall with a frozen lake
Well now that the snow has come, the temps are warming up and the next stage is the freeze. This means time for me to catch up on the blog again. Last weekend was a spectacular couple days of sun and very cold temps, night lows around 15 and days at about 25-30 depending on your location. Standing in front of the glacier on Friday, a 10-15 mile an hour wind blowing in my face it felt closer to zero, but the view was amazing. People were wandering out on the ice and climbing on icebergs, but that seems not so smart to me. One little calving from the glacier and it all could turn to mush! I did spend a fair amount of time throwing rocks on the frozen ice and listening to the echo underneath between it and the water, very cool sound. Also its like bowling if you aim for other rocks, or maybe curling. Ha ha ha. Anyways for those that know the area, Nugget creek falls is just out of frame on the right and the large rock on the left is the peninsula that was covered in ice when I was a child. The visitors center is roughly a mile behind me and I am standing on a new terminus left from the face of the late 70's and early 80's. It is absolutely amazing how much it has receded and how the lake bathymetry has evolved. Here are some other pics from that day, hope you enjoy them!
Panorama showing how far the glacier has moved from the falls, amazing!
Mt. MiGinnis across the lake, just before snow level dropped to sea level
Nugget falls is starting to freeze up, crazy ice formations, also the iceberg looks like a cow, ha ha ha
There had been a great wind storm a day before and blew all the ice up on the beach, very cool
Its amazing the different types of ice from one glacier
A little abstract, but I like the lines, notice the frozen bubbles that tried to escape, they are to perpendicular lines in the ice?

 Different angle to see the bubbles

Light through ice, notice the chip that looks kinda like a clam? A favorite past time for the locals is to throw ice and break it, also throwing rocks on the ice as mentioned earlier.
With the final rays, a block lights up and glows
like gems, diamonds, so very cool
And with the final rays of the sun, I head for the truck and the heater that awaits me.