World Within Icicles

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Today, with the freezing rain turning out to be modest (a good thing, from the standpoint of dangerous roads and power outages), I did notice some icicles that formed around dangling pine needles.  The ice picked up the colors of surrounding evergreen leaves, and refracted some wonderful patterns.  I worked my way gradually to a life-sized view (larger than life once enlarged from the size of the camera sensor to viewing size).  Even though the breezes were minimal, under this high magnification, the trembling of the smaller "iciclette" was very noticeable.  I timed one shot to a moment of least movement, and got a critically sharp image.  The camera was of course on a tripod, or my own trembling would have had even worse effect than the subject movement.

In the full-sized image, I see upside down trees and land features within the drop.  You may have to use your imagination to see that in this web rendition, but I think the snake-like shapes in the large icicle (you're seeing an inch and a half or so of its four inch length) are very apparent and quite nice.

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A little ice

Here are a few attempts to find some visual interest on a day that we did not get the snow that had been forecast as a fair probability. What did show up were a few icicles, including some hanging from plants.

And dripping...

The birds found the tiny patch of snow dust that miraculously harbored some seeds and fruit.

Icy and wet leaves have a great way of reflecting a diffuse light source (the cloudy sky through a space in the trees).

On this holly tree, I caught a pair of "drip points" that synchronized perfectly for one cycle. I have shots of the water pooling on the icicles, and falling in unison from both leaves. Here is the shot showing the water beginning to pull loose, just before it fell.

Of course, an easy place to find icicles is hanging from eaves. I liked this composition because of the end of a pine branch frozen in an odd position, and also the mid-ground perspective and texture provided by the shingled roof and the background of the trees.

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