Lake Ice

Back in January, when it was considerably colder than it is now, I shot some photos of lake ice. I never know what I am going to get year to year, and it can vary location to location. I had gone, for example, somewhere else the previous week and given the strength  and angle of the sun in relation to the build up of ice, I came away only with a self portrait. :) I really didn't like the results. But here, I left with a few interesting images.

Only in a couple of instances was I far up and out onto the ice. By far I mean no more than 10-20m or so beyond the natural beach line. I stayed on the stuff that was really thick from where it had built up many multiple layers against the beach. That vertical piece in the first image, for example, was probably close to a meter thick. Now and then it did afford me a higher vantage point to photograph the ice farther out - which probably went out half a kilometer into the lake. I stayed well off that: I am all about keeping near frozen ice water out of my snow boots.  ;)

It was fascinating to see how the ice, pushed by the wind, and influenced by the shallow sandbars below, had formed these little lagoons of flat smooth ice. They were completely surrounded by long stretches of broken up ice that had created their own little bays, inlets and small islands.

Mike