As I've mentioned before, I spend a lot of time in ditches. The ice in this one was thin, so I couldn't walk on it - I had to lean precariously over the ice from the margin and use live view rather than my viewfinder to frame my shots, while taking care not to fall in or wreck my back.
Sometimes the idea of how to crop comes after the fact, but in this case I knew immediately it had to be square. The frozen bubbles, framed diagonally; the horizontal fracture line across the top. Square felt right. I like its formal dimensions. I find it too static for most wildlife shots but just right for some other subjects and situations.
And that golden light seemingly originating beneath the ice. Just remember The Merchant Of Venice: "All that glisters is not gold." (Today we generally substitute the modern word "glitter", but in Shakespeare's day "glister" was a synonym.) Anyway, cold, not gold.
The usual setup here: macro lens, tripod, cable release, because my camera's shutter is not electronic, but rather, mechanical, with moving parts that create vibration. Locking up the mirror helps. Soon only dinosaurs will still be using DSLRs.
I love shooting spring ice; it's always a good exercise in imaginative seeing.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2025 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: ice bubbles frozen thin ditch macro close up late winter almost spring square details beauty light wild prairie Grasslands National Park Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2025 naturesquare
© All Rights Reserved
As winter begins to fade, I'm finding image potential once more in the roadside puddles and ditches. The melting snow produces standing water which then freezes overnight. Get out early with a tripod and macro lens, and a whole new world of possibilities unfolds.
Here, last year's fallen weeds lie suspended in and under thin ice, overlaid by a million frozen bubbles. An abstract tangle of shapes and textures; a transient moment in an ancient process of death, decay, and rebirth. A minor miracle. A wild moment of imaginative connection that, for me, transformed the ordinary into the extraordinary.
The pano crop was an afterthought. Last spring I started shooting "macro panoramas" - consciously - applying a format usually reserved for landscapes to other subjects. Why not? The standard 2:3 ratio is just fine as a default, but there's no reason we can't push the boundaries of conventionality when other options arise. A panorama seemed just right for this shot.
I added a 1.7x teleconverter to the 105mm macro lens for this, allowing me a little more working distance from my subject. It also meant I didn't have to lean over as far to frame the shot - my back isn't what it used to be, and the less strain I put on it, the better. These roadside ditches are less fascinating if you fall face first into one.
Photographed in Rosefield, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2025 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: ice abstract weeds ditch roadside frozen bubbles macro close up tripod small aperture springlike late winter panorama pano tangle beauty Wow! wild prairie Rosefield SK Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2025
© All Rights Reserved
This part of the river lay in shade, but its iced surface was reflecting both blue from the sky and yellow from the desiccated grasses and shrubs lining its banks. That's all. I liked the lines here, the colours, the clean surface.
Photographed on the Frenchman River in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada), Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2025 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: ice river frozen blue yellow reflected colour simple beauty minimalsm winter cold wild prairie Frenchman River Grasslands National Park Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2025
© All Rights Reserved
Our unpredictable March weather continues. Two days ago daytime temperatures reached 17°C (that's 62.6°F); right now, with the first faint glow of dawn on the horizon, it's -13°C (8.6°F). "All the snow has turned to water," sang the late, great John Prine, and it has. But we are still in the melt-refreeze cycle, and that can produce interesting special effects wherever ice forms overnight.
A year ago, I spent 45 minutes at the edge of a wheat field where standing water had gathered in a shallow depression and turned to ice. Some of the resulting images look three dimensional, but despite the apparent curvature in this one, the surface was flat. It isn't even wide angle distortion, as I shot it with a 105mm and teleconverter. So strange.
I'm out of here. Have to catch that early light!
Photographed near Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2024 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: ice puddle seasonal melt-refreeze cycle flat illusion not curved abstract pattern ice crystals wild prairie roadside Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2024
© All Rights Reserved
Hints of Spring, continued. Spinning ice disks on the Frenchman River, below the Newton Lake dam... I don't know whether they were forming or melting and breaking up, but it was an interesting natural pattern of shapes and textures in constant motion. A radical change from the stillness of winter.
Photographed northwest of Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2024 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: ice disks water floating rotating spinning breakup spring natural pattern nature river wild prairie Newton Lake Frenchman River square Val Marie SK Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2024
© All Rights Reserved