Behind the Lens: Ice Lily 1 & 2

These two images were a totally unexpected surprise on the road trip I took with my wife in October. We were on the last day in Yellowstone and had decided the day before to go South to Jackson, WY and through Grand Teton National Park. On the way down we crossed over multiple continental divides, and had to stop to check one out and capture an obligatory selfie together in-front of the sign.

What really caught my eye though was what was just off the side of the road. The tiny lake (I would call it more of a pond) was filled with Lily Pads and was completely frozen on the top! The temperatures up here were right around the mid-20’s at the time as well, so after capturing the first one my hands were quite cold since I neglected putting gloves on.

We made our way into Jackson to have lunch at the amazing Snake River Brewery before going by Jenny Lake at the base of the Tetons. We also saw a Grizzly Mama bear and her three cubs! It really was a great day on the road.

On the way back to Yellowstone I decided it was worth stopping a second time at the lake to capture a smaller section of the scene. I am glad I did as well because the ice had changed ever so slightly. Now, there were new textures beneath the ice that had become visible and the color was different as well. I used the tripod this time to be a bit more delicate with composition and narrowed the aperture a bit more to maximize depth of field as much as possible. 

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I drove away that day with two really nice images of a scene I had never seen photographed before. The uniqueness is really exciting along with how beautiful the ice patterns are with the Lily Pads now past their prime decaying on the surface. 

Behind the Lens: Fall's Departure

I haven’t had many opportunities to get out and shoot this year and even some of the times I have gone out I felt less productive than normal. There is a pressure I put on myself to try to capture something interesting and worthy of a place in the portfolio. 

I do realize that there is no sense in stressing over images that need not be perfect every time I click the shutter. What helps is finding positives in images that I capture that aren’t perfect. This image exemplifies that because it is not technically perfectly sharp.

Yes, it holds up when viewed fairly large, but it definitely has a falloff towards the top as I ran out of the depth of field on the upper edge of frame. While I wish I had endless sharpness it was a balance of two things and I made the compromise in aperture. The leaves were moving downstream, it was shot at a long focal length, and I was already at a high ISO for the cloudy morning and the background would become noisy if I bumped it higher.

Given all of these “issues” with the image technically, it still holds up in capturing the mood and demonstrates the idea. The water made for a dark and deep cool backdrop for the warm fall tones in the leaves to sit against. The ripples from Oregon’s late fall/early winter rainstorms are what create that last layer of complexity and depth.

Overall, I think it is an image I can look back on with a strong sense of pride. Seeing something like this and being able to capture the subtle beauty of this area was wonderful!