Ice Walk on Lake Champlain at Shelburne Farms

One of the things that I have been keeping myself busy doing during this extremely long, extremely cold winter here in Vermont is to get out and see things that I normally would not see.  Yes, I hate being cold.  Yes, it sucks when the wind chill is -25F!  BUT did you know that these extreme conditions make for some incredible photography finds?  Our Lake Champlain froze over completely this year (happened last year too but before that, not for I believe 7 years!) and I took the opportunity to get different perspectives of places I had already photographed many times from the shore.  To view all of my Ice Walks this year please visit my gallery site!

The most recent ice walk took place at Shelburne Farms.  This place is my idea of heaven.  It is huge, full of awesome trails and interesting building structures, and you pretty much have free range of the place as long as you respect the private areas and don't cause trouble.   Thursday, March 19, I picked up my friend Ceili and we met up with our friend Joanne near the Coach Barn.  

While waiting for Joanne we crawled around on the ice at the shore with both our cameras and our phones (for macros) admiring the bubbles and cracks and feathery appearance of the refrozen ice.  You could hear the ice groaning and pinging and splooshing as it was freezing up harder.  We had a warm snap last weekend and the top layer had melted a bit, but it got super cold again and things were hardening up once more.  The result was a lot of little bubbles and fractures that scattered the light from the late afternoon sun:

A goose feather

Feathery patterns in the ice

When Joanne got there she led us around the edge of the water to the base of a very interesting rock ledge.  

Looking to the South toward Quaker Smith Point

Places that had started melting and then refroze forming ridges

I have never seen rock do this.  I think it is shale?

We walked on the piles of ice right at the edge of the cliff base.  I did not feel that walking out too far was very safe, although there was a man walking way out past the ice ridges and he didn't seem too concerned.  There was also a couple with a dog who were not quite as far but still farther than I dared.  We didn't need to walk out anyway to see some really beautiful ice formations: 

Icicles were everywhere 

Ice "cave" in the snow 

I spotted this golden glowing hunk of ice among the dirt.  It was catching the intense yellow of the sunset. 

This caught my eye 

Piles of ice diamonds were everywhere.  You had to step on them to get anywhere and they made a satisfying crunching sound...

The sky was very clear so yellow and blue dominated the colors reflected.

Natural ice cubes

An ice bird

Cieli 

I saw a plate of ice with this Oak leaf frozen inside.  I picked it up and part of it broke but I like that the edges are sticking out.

Just beyond the piles of hardened snow and ice there was open water on top...Glad we didn't go too far!

The ice was clear as glass.  Each piece looked beautiful and unique.

I see a skeleton of a prehistoric bird in this one

Open water that is refreezing on the edges

We decided to play with the open water and toss chunks in.  It was hard to catch them clearly in the waning light but still fun trying!

It was such a beautiful night that we had a hard time leaving.  Venus was shining bright in the sky and there was still a glow on the horizon.  Looking forward to the next time I can come back here!

©Moonshine Designs & Photography 2015

Bubbles, Bubbles, Everywhere!

Equipment:  Nikon D7000, Sigma 18-250mm Macro lens
Settings:  Aperture Priority, f/6, ISO 200

Last year was the first time I tried to freeze bubbles.  I was very unsuccessful and gave up, moving on to things like sunsets and walking on the Lake which had frozen over all the way out to the breakwater and beyond.  This year I was determined to make it work.  I tried several different mixtures and the best so far is 3 cups water, 1 cup blue Dawn, 1/2 cup corn syrup.  It works really good if you can let it sit for a few hours after mixing.

One of the things that has kept me from success is the constant breeze that we seem to get at my house.  We have had temps in the negative teens, but always accompanied by wretched winds that make it impossible to even try.  Another thing is trying to maneuver both the bubble blowing AND try to take photos with a DSLR all while dodging the gusts of wind.  Even a slight breeze can foil the best bubble.  Having a willing partner who will sit and get their hands wet and cold (and maybe their bum too) and blow the bubbles for you makes a huge difference.

Yesterday my neighbor and business partner Julie was up for the challenge and we got to work.  It was a bit breeze as usual but we hunkered down in the shelter of my house and managed to get a few.  I used a colored paper plate as a tray in hopes of creating contrast, as we were only able to get one bubble to live on the snow and it was tiny.

On the snow this one looked like a pearl to me.

You can see my friend's and my reflection in this one :)

This morning I went out again as there was almost NO breeze at all.  Julie was busy so I had to try by myself.  This time I was able to use my patio table which has a good foot of snow on it, and get beneath the bubbles to create a darker background.  The frost patterns showed up much better and I even got some swirlies as the freezing process was happening.  I colored the snow with food coloring to add some interest.

Double bubble (yes I know it looks like a butt lol)

This one popped and after looking at the photo on my computer I realized it had two tiny snowflakes perched on it!

I shined an LED light on this one and it created a little red leaf!

Every bubble is so different.  They all start out the same but the frost patterns move this way and that as the air pushes the solution around.  It is so beautiful and fun to watch.

Close up of frost pattern growing.  You can see a tiny snowflake is formed in the center of each design!  

I hope you enjoyed my photos!  It is hard work getting everything orchestrated and getting out there during the right conditions but once you do it is really rewarding!  And if you have children it is really fun to show them how different bubble mixtures can give different results, and to let them watch the process of a frost pattern grow before their eyes :)

Autumn watching me from the window haha!