One Word Sunday: Pareidolia
A Tree Creature with lopsided ears.
A Rock Creature, being spied on by a Discworld troll?
Being watched by an Ice Creature on the Colpoy’s Bay shoreline at sunrise.
Tag: ice
WWE #20: Colpoy’s Bay at sunrise
Sunday morning saw me down at the Colpoy’s Bay shoreline for the sunrise. Three days into spring and it was so cold that I got a second pair of gloves out of the car to go over the thin gloves I use to operate the camera.
This is a contribution to Jez Braithwaite’s Water Water Everywhere #20 Photo Challenge.
That’s ice forming on the rocks along the shoreline.
CFFC: Panoramic Views
This is my contribution to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Pick a Topic from this Photo where Cee posts a photo and participants pick something from the photo to make a post about.
As the photo Cee posted was a mural of a landscape in a panoramic format I decided to go with a small selection of panoramic landscapes.
Trees in the snow. Hatherton, Cheshire, England.
Trees and their shadows. Bickerton Hill, Cheshire, England.
Clouds over the lake at sunset. A section of Last Mountain Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Ice on Lake Huron at sunset in the spring. Saugeen Shores, Ontario, Canada.
Inhospitable Picnic Tables
When I read the prompt for Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Tables, Chairs, Picnic Tables I remembered a couple of picnic tables and some benches on the Colpoy’s Bay shoreline. As I had to go into town I made a short detour to get some photos of them.
The flood water had dropped a few inches before it froze and I took the photo.
This picnic table was mostly buried in snow and ice until recently. All the rocks around the picnic table and in the snow were thrown there by waves before the shoreline was covered in snow.
These two benches and two more out of shot are less inhospitable than they were last year. Then the water level in Colpoy’s Bay was so high they were effectively on an island and only way to get to them was by wading through the water.
After writing this post I remembered this inhospitable bench I photographed last autumn. Outside the entrance to the abandoned grocery store in Wiarton on the South Bruce Peninsula, the bench is surrounded by Private Property, No Trespassing signs. As if anyone would want to sit down and view the parking lot from it.
Fan Of… Uni-Loc tripods
This is a contribution to Jez Braithwaite’s Fan Of… #58 photo challenge.
Firstly I should say that I don’t know if Uni-Loc are still in business. I emailed them a couple of years ago and after an initial response never heard from them again. Their Facebook page hasn’t been updated since 2012. I have been using the tripods since the early 1990s and used to know Ken Brett, the man behind the design.
Uni-Loc tripods are very different from most tripods. The system tripods can be disassembled and reassembled in a different configuration with an Allen key (wrench). The legs can be locked at almost any angle and all three lock with a single locking lever. The bottom leg sections are sealed meaning that they can be submerged up to the locking knob without taking on water. If you submerge the legs above the first section they can quickly be removed and drained with an Allen key (wrench).
They aren’t a tripod I would recommend to most photographers, they’re heavy and bulky when folded but in deep water, snow or mud they’re my first choice.
In 1995 I spent the summer in Saskatchewan, Canada. I took my medium sized Uni-Loc tripod with me in case I needed to use a tripod in water or mud.
A Willet photographed on a shallow slough near Punnichy, Saskatchewan with the tripod. Some of the sloughs in the area can be quite alkaline so the sealed legs were useful. I could rinse any mud off the legs when I got a chance to.
To get into position for this photo I waded through knee high snow and then pushed the tripod legs down into the snow for maximum stability.
The tripod in use on the Colpoy’s Bay shoreline at sunrise. I was photographing the waves forming icicles. By the time I was ready to pack the tripod away two of the legs were frozen to the pebbles.
What I was photographing while the tripod was freezing to the pebbles.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Reflections
This is my contribution to the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Reflections.
I was considering my post early on Sunday morning when I was down at the Colpoy’s Bay shoreline for the sunrise photographing the colour reflected in the bay. The first two reflections that came to mind were both from Saskatchewan in the late 1990s so I decided to add a third photo from around the village of Punnichy.
A sunrise partially reflected in the ice on a frozen slough near Punnichy.
A Horned Grebe amongst reflections of weathered straw bales near Punnichy.
Autumn colour partially reflected in a slough near Punnichy.
Patterns and Texture in the Ice
Throwback Thursday travels back to Saskatchewan in the late 1990s and a frozen section of marsh at sunset.
The strange circular patterns and the texture on the surface of the ice caught my eye. What almost looks like film grain is the texture of the ice surface.
A frozen section of marsh at Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan at sunset.
