153: Foggy and frosty
Posted: February 23, 2011 Filed under: 365 Yoga Challenge, Adventures in Life, Air, Earth, home, nature, Photography, pond, snow, Spirit, Walking, water, weather, winter | Tags: fog, frost, hoar frost, Mother Nature, postaday2011, snow, sun 36 Comments(Morning sun burning through the fog.)
Foggy and frosty. Sounds like it should be the name of a cartoon duo. I need a lesson in blog post titles, as well as how to title your photos.
We had fog here in the Bogs during the early morning hours. Fog plus cold temps (the low was about 4°F) often equals frost of some kind so I went out early today to see what had developed. Hoar frost! Nice, big, feathery, fluffy hoar frost was covering just about everything. The closer to the pond and to the ground one got, the bigger and fluffier the hoar frost.
Unfortunately for me, the best of the hoar frost involved a lot of white on white. Beautiful to look at. Difficult to photograph.
Last year I was lucky enough to catch the hoar frost on a sunny day so I could shoot upwards, towards the sky, which gave the photos much-needed contrast.
All I could do was work with what I was given. I tried a variety of settings on the camera, played with the white balance, and ultimately ended up doing a lot of tweaking in Photoshop to bring out the contrast.
The pond was a big help. Adjusting the levels and contrast resulted in the ice on the pond looking blue.
I wish you all could have been there to see it. Mother Nature seems to have decided to go all-out this winter, putting on the best of her winter displays. (Reminder: Click on the photos to see the slightly larger view. You can see more details that way.)
I was out for a little over two hours. It had warmed up to about 10°F by the time I went out, and it felt quite cold at first. Eventually I didn’t notice the cold at all.
This morning’s yoga and exercise is what I think of as The Photographer’s Workout. It involved a lot of walking, including a nice, big hill, as well as bending, stretching, squatting, and lying on the ground then pushing back up to a standing position.
It’s a fun way to work out. And that last hill got my heart rate up and helped me work up a sweat. I wonder if I could market this workout?
That’s about it from the Bogs today. I’ll leave you with a few more photos of hoar frost, and a few of the sun. As of early this afternoon, it still had not managed to burn through the fog. The hoar frost, by the way, was gone by 11:00am. You have to get out early if you want to catch hoar frost.
Oh! I almost forgot. Yesterday’s sunset lit up the ice hanging from the clothes line. It was some of the prettiest stuff I’ve ever seen hanging on the line. Not the best of shots, but it will give you some idea of what it looked like.
See you tomorrow!
Hi Robin,
Wow, I love these photos. I’m from Connecticut and have actually never seen ice crystals look like that. Where exactly were these photos taken?
Thanks for sharing!
– Nate
Hi Nate, and welcome to Life in the Bogs. 🙂
The photos were taken this morning in northeastern Ohio (somewhere between Cleveland and Akron).
Thank you for stopping by and commenting. I appreciate it.
These photos leave me breathless, Robin! Stunning—I dont’ know what else to say. I’m without words——
Hugs from Haiti,
Kathy
To leave such a good writer as yourself without words is quite a compliment. Thank you, Kathy. 🙂
Hugs from the Bogs,
Robin
I’ve seen a lot of hoar frost over the years, but I think this is frost at its best. Such long crystals. It must have been like a crystal party out there. Beautiful!
It was exactly that, Bo. This is one of those times when I wished fervently for a better camera. Imagine what could have been done with a good camera and a good macro lens. There was no wind at all, something highly unusual at Breezy Acres.
Yep, I was imagining having a little photo session with all that frost myself. Then I gave myself a good shake, think I’ll go shoot a cactus for a while (WITH a camera, of course.)
Hey, it’s the wild west out here, lots of packin’iron…
There’s so much beauty in ice. Lovely shots.
Thank you, SunsetSeaSoul. 🙂
Lovely pics… Reminded me of narnia..:) Never seen such large ice crystals… Lovely…
Thanks so much, Mystique Sunshine. 🙂
Love the frosty photos. The clothes line is really neat even if you don’t think it’s good. I liked it.
Thanks, Martina. 🙂
The washing-line looked like ‘strung lights’ at Christmastime…and I think ‘foggy and frosty’ sound like a fantastic comic duo. 😉
Breathless again here, with the stunning display Ice crystals make, with the help of Mother Natures freezing fingers of clothing design. I think ‘she’ has a natural touch… just as you do with your camera…
xPenx
Thank you, Pen. 😀
These are some pretty amazing shots! I’ve never seen hoar frost in person before, so I imagine I’d be enchanted by it, just as you obviously were.
Thanks, Karma. Hoar frost is (to me) an amazing phenomenon. We don’t see it to this extent all that often.
No denying the fog and the frost crystals are simply incredible! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such large-formed crystals in Massachusetts…or else I’ve never been up early enough on a cold morning to catch them! 😉
You do have to be up early to catch it, Tracy. I was surprised it lasted as long as it did. Had it been clear and sunny, I wouldn’t have had nearly as long to look at and photograph it.
I just wish I had a better camera and lens. There was no wind so macro shots of this stuff would have been amazing.
You make me want to come walk in the bog with you. I especially liked your photo of the sun burning through the fog.
Thanks for sharing
Pat Bean
http://wordpress.com
Thank you, Pat. 🙂
Robin, your hoarfrost photos are lovely. It can be so hard to photograph, but it looks like you did a great job. (The blue of the pond really does make it stand out, though.) And that moon! Be still my heart… so beautiful.
Thank you so much, Kathy. 🙂
Oooh, I’m so jealous of your frosty shots! How COOL!! I would have happily frozen my fingers off, trying to photograph some frosty things 🙂
Thank you, Michaela. 🙂 I doubled up on my gloves so it wasn’t too bad.
I’ve never seen anything quite like these photos before, Robin! We lead a very sheltered life here in Australia! Look at what we are missing out on, with so much heat! The beauty of your photos are simply indescribable….
Thank you, Joanne. Mother Nature has made good photos pretty easy to get at times. 🙂
I have trouble coming up with titles and captions, too! Exquisite shots! At first I thought the sun was a day moon… The hoar frost is so magical. I like white on white in interior design, and it looks beautiful outside, too…
Thank you, Barbara. 🙂
My husband thought that was a shot of the moon, too.
My life has been all work, sick parents, dark gray, cold with absolutely no time to play. Even though I am extremely tired of winter and want it to go away, I have been loving every picture of your frozen, frosty, snowy world. Actually, inside, I am thoroughly and totally envious of your time outdoors and your gift of such beautifully photographic weather. Know that I have been living vicariously through you and your pictures this week. Thanks.
I’m sorry life has been like that for you lately, Bearyweather. Winter is hard enough without adding all that other stuff to it. I hope things get better for you soon.
Wow! I really liked each photo in this series. Lovely frosty! 🙂
Thanks, Anna. 🙂
[…] that it’s still February. Technically, it’s winter. In case you’re wondering, this is what it looked like last year on this […]
Gorgeous photos. Makes me cold just looking at them!
Thank you, Susan. 🙂
The images reminded me of how cold my fingers get when I take photos of frost. For some reason, those frosty days are the worst when it comes to finger-numbing cold.