Melting Ice

With the longer March days and the sun climbing higher in the sky every day, ice is melting everywhere. The photos I am sending today were taken in the 70s and 80s, but illustrate some of the local environment this time of the year.

The first photo was taken near Grand Falls on the Exploits River. I was snowshoeing when I came out of the forest on to the riverbank. I saw this "duck-head" shaped natural ice-sculpture and stopped to photograph it. In order to get this composition I had to lie flat on the ice. In those days I carried two camera bodies; one for colour slides and one for black and white film. Despite the cold, I changed camera bodies and shot it again with black and white film.



The "duck-head" shape is about 3 - 4 inches in length. The blue in the bottom of the "beak" is light refracting and/or reflecting through the ice. The dark patches in the background are trees on the near and far sides of the river.

The next image shows icicles forming on the bottom of an ice pan in a river. I have seen and photographed this type of scene many times.



The next image today shows a similar scene, but from a different angle.