Yes, I guess I needed to clarify that the seasons should mimic those of the New York zone, not Canada. LOL Otherwise I'd say 2 months of Spring, 6 months of Summer, 3 months of Fall and 1 month of Winter.
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Brian's Winter Close-ups
- Thread starter FundyBrian
- Start date
Yes, I guess I needed to clarify that the seasons should mimic those of the New York zone, not Canada. LOL Otherwise I'd say 2 months of Spring, 6 months of Summer, 3 months of Fall and 1 month of Winter.
You certainly can't clear off this amount of ice in a hurry and there's a lot of potential to damage the car. In this case the weather started warming up and we had nowhere to go so we left it alone. By the next day we could peel off the ice quite easily.
If you need to hurry it along you can thump the ice with your palm in the middle of big surfaces, like the roof, hood and doors. They have enough give to bounce but the ice will crack. Not the glass, though.
I have had thicker ice while visiting farther north in Escuminac. Minimum 3/4" all over. With a cold wind and no sun the ice was like rock. The only solution was to start the car with the remote starter and leave it running for about an hour until gradually the innermost ice next to the car started to melt. Then I could start chipping it off. Once you have an edge you can get under it starts coming off in big pieces.
Of course, before getting on the road you need to get all the ice off to be sure it doesn't fly off at speed and break somebody's windshield.
Treetop pointing down.
I separated the background using Tadaa SLR (mask & blur).
An unusual feature of this ice storm is that the tree tops were gradually bending downward so the ice and icicles became bent according to the position at the time. The treetops ended up pointing down. More on this later!
Here is the exposed side of our mailbox, heavily iced.
The front of the mailbox. The door handle, and then looking at the edge of the mailbox showing at least 2cm, 3/4" ice.
Not a closeup but since we were just at the mailbox I thought I would show you the situation at the road. Note the fallen wire connected to my power transformer.
It's so beautiful, but so destructive.
When I first went outside I was mostly noticing and photographing the broken trees, but soon the beauty of the ice formations took over.
GroovyGouvy
MobiLifer
Wow, Brian, though your winter is mean and threatening, dangerous and not really something nice 
, it makes the most unusual, great, gorgeous, interesting and lovely pictures. 
Like the fine line between love and hate, genius and madness this is danger and beauty that are so close together. 
, it makes the most unusual, great, gorgeous, interesting and lovely pictures. Like the fine line between love and hate, genius and madness this is danger and beauty that are so close together.
Upper branch tip of Maple tree now hanging down close to the ground. The new branch tips are red but usually too high to see up close.
The curved icicles result from the changes of angle as the branches, once upright, gradually bent downwards towards the ground.
Iphone7+, Tadaa SLR.
Wow, Brian, though your winter is mean and threatening, dangerous and not really something nice
It's interesting that I don't think of winter as being mean. One needs to be cautious of the cold weather of course when planning an excursion, or planning a drive. Experience prepares you with knowing the right sort of clothing to wear. Overall the winter is quite beautiful. Snow blanketing the ground covers up a multitude of messy stuff, leaving vast areas of simplicity. Wonderful for minimalism and graphic design.
Wow.... beautiful. Almost looks like a vein encased in ice.
Beautiful.
It could also be in the Found Faces thread as a saw-toothed something-or-other.
Maple tree top branch now pointing down close to the ground.
iPhone 7+, Tadaa SLR.
I'm intrigued to know how that top icicle formed.
I'm intrigued to know how that top icicle formed.
It helps to visualize what was happening to the tree during the ice storm. These branches were pointing straight up at first. That's when they got the main ice load. When the weight became too much the tree started to bend over. Now the rain-becoming-ice started dripping off in a new direction, starting the icicles. As the ice & weight increased, the branches gradually bent down more, and the icicles kept adjusting to the new "down" direction. Later the tree top bent completely over and the icicle shapes no longer make sense at all.
I photographed plenty of these shapes but maybe that's enough for now.
This one was masked and background blurred in Leonardo rather than Tadaa SLR. Tadaa is a bit easier since it has more edge detection but I keep forgetting it doesn't give full resolution, so after all the masking work the image is limited to screen viewing or tiny printing. With Leonardo you have to make the layers manually but in the overall time spent this is insignificant, especially to gain full resolution and numerous other editing features. Sometimes the edge recognition in Tadaa becomes more of a pain and has to be shut off, so then it's the same with either one. I should delete Tadaa so I won't forget the low resolution again. I thought Enlight might be good for this, too, but it lacks a good blur.
These little bits of grass by the driveway were so insignificant that I never noticed them until they became encased in ice. I had shovelled over this grass several times while clearing the driveway yet apparently it didn't get shaved off. Pretty durable stuff. Here they are completely encased in ice and still standing.
Nearby treetops looked like this.
Here's an apple tree weighed down so much I thought it might fall flat.
This tall birch tree near the end of my driveway was bent right over touching the ground, blocking the driveway, yet it didn't break, and the next day was standing upright again. (This is only one branch of it)
There's some sort of a saying about the key to survival is being flexible enough to bend while the inflexible will snap. Here we see it being played out in real life.
Beautiful analogy...
GroovyGouvy
MobiLifer
I've never seen anything alike. [emoji50]
No, me neither Gouvy. I'm not in a hurry to see it in real life either. That rain is like some biblical curse. Terrible stuff.
GroovyGouvy
MobiLifer
True but it makes unbelievable pictures. FundyBrian did you offer them to national geographics? Wouldn't be surprised if they'd buy some. [emoji4]
Thanks for the encouragement but I would be surprised is NG is buying pictures these days. We get a good ice storm every year or so so the pictures aren't that uncommon around here. In milder climates I guess it looks pretty dramatic in the same way southern weather events look pretty dramatic to us. I enjoy a good ice storm, as long as it isn't too damaging, for the great photo opportunity it makes. Of course a lot depends on the lighting quality we get just after the ice event. Crisp cold and sun & blue skies are great for ice photos. But sometimes we get dull skies and rain so the opportunities are over quite quickly. Usually the first day is the best.
A telephoto closeup.
I thought this picture belongs in my winter close-ups even though it was made with a telephoto lens. Check out my thread about photography through binoculars, etc.
I thought this picture belongs in my winter close-ups even though it was made with a telephoto lens. Check out my thread about photography through binoculars, etc.
GroovyGouvy
MobiLifer
Such a beauty! And the snowflakes around! [emoji177] what a fantastic winter picture. [emoji7]