Aira Force

You can see from this picture how cold it was by looking at the sides of the crevice cut out by the falls, which are coated with ice.

I have used a long exposure here to freeze the motion  and to give a sense of the force of the water pouring over the rocks.

Icicles

These icicles have been formed from water splashing from a mountain stream onto an overhanging branch of heather. The rocks are glistening with ice too.

Frozen!

In just about every puddle and small crevice in the rocks along the way during my walk on Saturday there was a frozen puddle and in some there were intricate and interesting patterns.

The colour in this image comes from the slate. The strange shape is from air trapped beneath the ice, it is a bit like the shed skin of a snake or some alien creature, or perhaps it resembles the shape of the intestine. Whatever you can see it is an interesting pattern which was worth taking the time to photograph.

Beneath our feet

Along the route around Ladybower reservoir there were several frozen puddles. The ice wasn't particularly thick but it made a really satisfying crunch and crackle as I stood on it and a bit like jumping in puddles breaking the ice was irresistible.

Before breaking this ice however I too  a few moments to get a photo. I love the different colours, the leaves held captive and the stripy patterns of the ice crystals across the surface. 

On Frozen Pond

I was fascinated to see the intricate and varied patterns etched in the ice on a small pool of water collected in the uneven surface of the bedrock on Thurstaston Hill. I have cropped the image slightly to remove some blades of grass in the bottom corner because they were a distraction from what I wanted to share.

Frozen

With snow and ice one of the main features on the news bulletins I thought there would be some good photo opportunities but locally there has been absolutely no snow.

I thought however that it would be topical to post some wintery pictures today so I have selected these shots of icicles taken in Utah in December 2012. I like the windblown array in the second picture and in the last three I like the way the thorns and pine needles have been encased in ice in a way I had never seen before.

I like all of the pictures but if I had to choose a favourite I would say the third one although it is not an easy choice.  Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Llyn Llydaw

Apparently yesterday's blog was a bit too geeky, at least at the start so I'll try to keep the technical stuff to a minimum for today. Except to say that today's pictures were taken with my Sigma EFS 10 - 20mm f4 lens, sadly I can't use it on my full frame 6D so I won't be capturing nice wide shots like these for a while.

These two pictures of Snowdon reflected in Llyn Llydaw were taken the same January morning as the upward icicle in my earlier blog.  This was on the walk back down the mountain and it was hard to believe that conditions the night before had been as atrocious as they were.  Although it is very bright it was still very cold and the path was very icy in places and care was needed to avoid a nasty slip. 

When I look at these pictures I am really grateful that I live so close to such beautiful scenery as this.  It also makes me twitchy and I can't wait to get out there again...

Enjoy.

Canon EOS 450D Sigma 10 - 20 mm @ 14mm f5, ISO 100 1/160sec

Canon EOS 450D  Sigma 10 -20mm @ 16mm f6.3 ISO 100 1/160 sec

Ice Age

With autumn just starting I thought some seasonal pictures of woodland scenes and leaves changing colour would be quite nice.  But not today.  Today I have picked out two pictures of ice crystals.

The first image was taken on the slopes of Snowdon after a night camping out in January 2012 with Adam and some friends.  We had hiked up to a suitable site in driving rain and snow, pitching our tents in the dark.  Waking up early to a beautiful sunrise I was able to get some stunning pictures.  Walking a little way up the slope above our camping ground I found this icicle growing upwards in a small pool in an indentation in a rock.  I had never seen anything quite like it before but it is real, there is no trickery.  Apparently these formations can occur in distilled water and only below -7C which shows just how cold it was on the mountainside for the intrepid campers.

The second picture was taken in December that same year, again I was with Adam and another friend hiking, this time near Malham Tarn in Yorkshire on part of the Pennine Way. It was our last walk before Adam set off for Colombia. It was really cold and I remember on the road back to the car I slipped on some black ice and landed quite heavily, fortunately nothing was broken and my main concern was to protect my camera gear.  Anyway in this picture I have used my macro lens to pick out the individual ice crystals which were growing in a cluster on a dry stone wall.

Snowdon Jan 2012, Canon EOS 450D 18 - 55mm @ 49mm f5.6 ISO 100

Ice Crystal,
Canon EOS 450D Canon 100mm f2.8 macro @f5.6 ISO 800