Monday 25 January 2021

There At My Feet

Sometimes you scan the far horizon for something to photograph: at other times it's right there at your feet.



And if like me you nearly go base-over-apex within a few seconds of leaving your back door, you tend to keep a lookout for it for the rest of the morning.



Ice! It was on every puddle, just waiting to catch the unwary. They say that art often arises out of adversity, so I resolved to train my camera lens on its extraordinary patterns and see if I could come up with any interesting photos from my morning tramp.



I suppose I was looking for some kind of abstract images, though that implies that what you see is removed from observable reality and makes you puzzle about exactly what you're looking at. That won't apply here because I've already told you what they are - frozen puddles, every last one of them.



It was an overcast morning so I've had to give the pictures more contrast and boost the colour on some of them. But all the strange patterns were created by nothing more than the effects of sub-zero temperatures on muddy water.



The green patches on the photo above seemed to be caused by some kind of algae, but exactly what caused all the wriggly lines I cannot explain.

 

I was just on the look out for pleasing, or puzzling, patterns, but I'm sure some of you will find faces or animals lurking somewhere. I used to have that kind of imagination when I was younger but I seem to have lost it somewhere along the way!



It's an oddly addictive kind of photography and one on which it was very easy to get hooked as there is such a plentiful supply of puddles around at the moment.



And every puddle seemed to have different patterns, even when they were only a foot or two apart and lying along the same tractor wheel rut.



I suppose some scientists can explain just how all these patterns are formed. Even more scarily a psychologist might be able to tell you why I photographed some and let others go unphotographed!



Or indeed why anyone would take pictures like this at all!



Or, for that matter, why you'd be looking at them!



Anyway it passed a couple of hours of my time in a most pleasant way, and gave me a good appetite by the time I got home.




Take care.


29 comments:

  1. These are wonderful! Nature as an artist!

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  2. Reminded me of the frost patterns that I found fasinating as a child. Thanks

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  3. Beautiful! Thank you for sharing!

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  4. Lovely. As you say, easy to get hooked on those kind of projects but they are very pleasing images. I miss seeing the frost we used to get on windows, those ferny fronds. (I don't miss the cold we suffered, from single-glazing and no CH!)

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  5. I love those photos - I agree with RedPat, nature is an artist but you are a good photographer.

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  6. So beautiful! Frozen frosty mornings are the best for finding these icy beauties. I have spent hours photographing frost patterns on windshields. Amazing what we can see out there.

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  7. All I can say John is isn't nature wonderful?

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  8. What a great collection of ice photos!

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  9. Thanks John - keeping your eye on the ice is essential and you have shared beauty.

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  10. I for one am glad you took them...they are fun to look at...plus imagine what great jigsaw puzzles they would make. I don't have a favorite.

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  11. Spectacular! One just has to look. Nature will provide.

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  12. I love these, John. So many possibilities, little cities under there. They'd make fine multi-paned wall art.

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  13. Simply sublime.
    I am so grateful you took the time (and every glad that you didn't go base over apex) - which is a phrase which always makes me think of my father. He used it often (and sometimes the ruder arse over tit version).

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  14. Those spiny balls remind me of electron microscope pictures of viruses.

    The no-man's land between the abstract and the figurative is an interesting one.

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  15. Makes me think back to when we were kids and heating systems in homes weren't very efficient, and frost built up on the insides of windows. There were so many patterns, and with a vivid mind you could interpret them in fanciful ways. If one is bent on looking for beauty in frozen puddles Canada is the place to be!

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  16. I would never have know those were photos of ice. What a mixture of patterns and colors! But how far did you walk if you were stopping constantly to take photos at your feet? Didn't you get cold?

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  17. Winter wonders 💙 I don't think you have lost your imagination at all John, it's alive and clicking with flare ✨

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  18. Such fun patterns right there on the ground!

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  19. Fun photos! My favorite is the one with the green patches. I think this kind of photography is super interesting. You have a wonderful day, hugs, Edna B.

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  20. Nature loves to do abstract art. Nice that you captured the beauty.

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  21. I enjoyed looking at those! Works of art for sure!
    Be careful - don't slip!
    Thanks so much for sharing this beauty!

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  22. Amazing images you share with us all John! These ice puddles are something else...brilliant!

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  23. Lovely photos John - we had a warm winter last year with no frost.

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  24. Those are just amazing. We don’t get much ice where I live now but once in a while I do enjoy they patterns in the ice on the birdbath. Nothing like yours though!

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  25. I loved looking through those pictures! The one with the algae sent me off to google, and I got lost for a time reading about filamentous alga.

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  26. Hmmm, so you think you were addicted, John, well I can assure you that you were and so was I in looking at the various patterns. People venture far and wide and fail to look below their feet as you have artistically shown us.

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