While photographing the glorious skies pictured in yesterday’s blog, Lenticular Clouds I did not fail to notice some interesting patterns in the ice bordering the river. I was a little surprised to see open water at this time of the year at this particular location, the Bow River Flats. The water in this area is a back channel of the Bow River and doesn’t flow very fast. Nonetheless, there is some open water at the widest point in the river and to an extent where the stream narrows but flows more quickly. I concentrated on those areas where the channel was narrower. Water and ice coexist and there are some interesting patterns in the ice along its edges. This first picture is perhaps the most interesting, specifically the formation of rounded globules at the margin of the ice. You can also see the river bed beneath the flowing water. The water appears smoothed due to the long exposure, 0.3 second.
The next picture shows a wider angle, a longer section of the stream showing one of channel’s ice edges and an ice formation around some bush branches emerging from the stream’s edge on the left. Again, the ice formation is very smooth, most likely from erosion by the rapidly flowing water over and around it. The flowing water appears smoothed in the photograph by again using a long exposure, 0.5 second. The golden colour of the stream’s surface is partly due to the river bed showing through and the yellowish late afternoon light.
Today’s last shot was taken with a faster exposure, 1/320th second, “freezing” the water’s movement. The water is very shallow, making the river bed quite visible and creating some turbulence. Ice has formed nonetheless and again there is a very smoothed and translucent edge. The ambient light is reflected by this edge, giving it a slight glow.
The winter offers some very good photographic opportunities. I look forward to getting out more in search of the uniquely beautiful scenes of winter in Canada.