Patterns in Ice

Some patterns in the ice on our footpaths last week.

Refractions and Iridescence in Raindroplets

I was using my telephoto lens (equivalent of 800 mm on full frame camera) to photograph birds but became distracted by the water droplets - their colours and refractions of the backgrounds - twigs or, in one case, barbed wire. Some also show spectral refractions of the low sunlight. Images 3-5 show the effects of moving the focus points closer. 

Hoar Frost Closeups

Image 1 is the first image that I took as I came out of the front door yesterday and is the sun through our silver birch trees with its twigs, buds and catkins all covered in frost. The light has been diffracted by the ice crystals giving some interesting shapes and colours. 

Cyanotypes and Trees

Projects often don't work out the way I planned but sometimes the results can be just as interesting as a 'success' would have been.  I printed the tree outlines on what I thought was ink-jet compatible film but discovered it was not stable or solid enough to act as a mask when exposing a cyanotype-coated paper to the light. However the exposed cyanotype before removing the film and washing the print proved an excellent starting point for further manipulations in the computer. Different papers, exposure time and types of light have created variations and combining some with negatives of the tree images has furthered the variation.

Ely Abstracts

During our walk round Ely on Sunday, I photographed quite a few patterns and textures - here is a selection.

Under the Pier

I am spending the weekend near Clacton for a postponed Bird Watching cruise from Brightlingsea tomorrow. Yesterday afternoon the sun came out for a short while and I made use of the light to investigate the world under the pier. There are abundant textures and colours but I mainly concentrated on the  'underwater world' and small glimpses cameos.