Details on the Last Days of Winter

Bubbles Beneath Ice

After a week of very warm weather in south-central Ontario much of the season’s snow accumulation has melted. This thawing resulted in the drainage ditches around my home taking on a resemblance to flowing rivers. As the water level in the ditches subsided the temperatures also began to drop again. This change in the weather pattern caused the surfaces of the water in the ditch to freeze while the water flowed away beneath the ice. What remained was a paper thin, extremely fragile layer of ice that presented a multitude of patterns and designs in the frozen surface. Using my Laowa 100mm 2X Ultra-Macro Lens I spent the better part of two hours exploring these intricate designs. The day was bright with clear blue skies, therefore, I deployed my coat to cast a shadow over some of the scenes, which resulted in a blue cast from the clear skies above. On the images where I opted not to use my coat to shade the designs the images took on a natural black and white feel.

This blog post features images captured during my adventures in the roadside ditch 🙂

Ice Details

Ice Details

Ice Details

Ice Details

Ice Details

Ice Details

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In the Land of Ice and Snow

The Niagara Escarpment at Georgian Bay on Bruce Peninsula National Park

Recently I accompanied a couple of past workshop participants an outing to Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula, which was well planned as the wintry scenes will come to an abrupt end with the onset of warmer, rainy weather forecasted for this week.

The Bruce Peninsula lies between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. A section of the Niagara Escarpment, a UNESCO World Biosphere, also runs along the Bruce Peninsula. The Niagara Escarpment is known for stunning limestone cliffs and outcrops as well as being home to eastern North America’s oldest trees and forest ecosystem. In winter this region takes on an incredible transformation as the cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment are adorned with massive amounts of ice. There are several caves along the base of the cliffs that are only accessible when Georgian Bay freezes over. The interiors of these caves are  incredible to explore as well, especially with a wide angle lens.

The Niagara Escarpment at Georgian Bay on Bruce Peninsula National Park

My choice of lens to use on this trip turned out to be the amazingly wide and razor sharp Laowa 12mm Zero D Lens on my Nikon D800. The close focusing capabilities of this lens easily allowed me to capture all the amazing icy details in the foregrounds, yet take in the grand landscape before me. The Laowa 12mm Zero D Lens was also extremely useful when entering the small caves along the base of the cliffs as I was easily able to capture a significant portion of the cave’s interior details while peering out through the cave openings.

The Niagara Escarpment at Georgian Bay on Bruce Peninsula National Park

All in all the outing to this area was short. We spent a mere 4 hours photographing the wintry details of the Georgian Bay coast. We had hoped for another opportunity on Sunday, but our plans were thwarted by significant winds and rain. Nonetheless, I created some of my personal best winter landscape imagery on the outing.

The Niagara Escarpment at Georgian Bay on Bruce Peninsula National Park

I was so impressed with the winter landscape opportunities along the Georgian bay coast in Bruce Peninsula National Park that I may offer a winter landscape photography workshop to this region in 2020. Folks that may be interested in such an event should contact me by clicking here to be added to my workshop email contact list.

The Niagara Escarpment at Georgian Bay on Bruce Peninsula National Park

 

The Niagara Escarpment at Georgian Bay on Bruce Peninsula National Park

 

 

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Muskoka’s Winter Waterfall Specatular Photography Workshop

Join Andrew McLachlan in Ontario’s Muskoka District on February 8, 9 & 10, 2019 for one full day and two half days of in-depth photographic exploration of the finest waterfalls in the region. Embrace the beauty of Muskoka this winter and learn the skills of landscape photography amid a winter wonderland of snow clad, iconic white pines and the intricate ice formations that adorn waterfalls and rivers during the winter months.

This workshop will require the ability to walk approximately 1 kilometre over uneven, snow-covered terrain. I do recommend the use of crampons on this workshop for the added safety they provide against slip and fall incidents if conditions are icy.

I also recommend that participants book their accommodations with the Sleep Inn in Bracebridge as they serve a continental breakfast.

Maximum number of participants is 10.

Itinerary:

Friday February 8:

• Meet at 1:00 p.m. in the parking lot of the Sleep Inn, Bracebridge and carpool to photo session at area waterfall

• Dinner (on your own)

• Optional night photography session at Bracebridge Falls as it is lit with flood lights

Saturday February 9:

• Meet in the parking lot of the Sleep Inn, Bracebridge at 7:00 a.m. and carpool to waterfalls for photo sessions

• Stop for lunch at approximately 1:00 p.m.

• Visit additional waterfalls for photo sessions

• Dinner at local restaurant at 7:00 p.m.

• Get some rested for early start on Sunday

Sunday February 10:

• Meet in the parking lot of the Sleep Inn, Bracebridge at 7:00 a.m. and carpool to waterfalls for photo sessions

• Stop for lunch (on your own) 1:00 p.m.

• Depart for home

What’s Included:

• In-depth photographic instruction during each photo sessions with LCD review

• Saturday lunch and dinner at nearby restaurant

What’s Not Included:

• Accommodations (numerous options available… I will be staying at the Sleep Inn)

• Transportation (car pooling of participants is encouraged)

• Friday night dinner

• Breakfast (The Sleep Inn serves a continental breakfast)

• Alcoholic Beverages

Workshop Fee:

335.00 CDN plus taxes

Payment can be made via email transfer or by cheque. A Waiver of Liability will be sent to those that are registering. A signed copy of this waiver must be returned to Andrew McLachlan in advance of the workshop.

To reserve your spot in the Muskoka Winter Waterfall Spectacular please contact me by clicking here to arrange payment.

Cancellation Policy:

No Refunds.

Check your schedule carefully prior to booking.

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Winter Detail Fun

Icy Shoreline of Lake Ontario in Toronto
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR Lens @ 400mm, ISO 800 f25 @ 1/800 sec. Handheld

On Friday, February 6th I decided to make the drive down to Humber Bay Park along the Lake Ontario shoreline in Toronto. I often find this to be a very productive location for over-wintering waterfowl, in particular the arctic species such as Long-tailed Ducks. I did not however, anticipate that much of the inner bays of the park would be frozen over. Usually there are open sections of water amid the frozen surface that hold lots of waterfowl, but on this day there were none and the ducks were much too far out in the lake to attempt photographing them. The solution: change gears and photograph some winter details because they can be a ton of fun.

In the image above the large boulders along the shoreline that protect against erosion from the incoming waves are coated in thick and treacherous ice. In the photo below I photographed this thick ice as it was back-lit by the sun to reveal the beautiful turquoise color of the rippled ice pattern created by the waves as they crash into the shoreline.

Rippled Ice Details
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR Lens @ 240mm ISO 100 f13 @ 1/13 sec. Nikon Polarizing Filter

As I made my way further along the shoreline exploring the interesting textures of ice I came upon a spot along the shoreline where it looked like the beach was made of ice cubes. It was difficult to steady myself for this handheld photo on the super slick ice, but I did mange to get a few interesting images. Below is my favorite of the ice cube beach.

Icy Details on Lake Ontario Shoreline
Nikon D800, Nikon 24-85mm VR lens @ 85mm, ISO 100 f16 @ 1/160 sec

Next on my list was to check out an area at Humber Bay where one of the small inland, man-made ponds flows back down to Lake Ontario to photograph some miniature landscape scenes of winter stream details. There was just enough cloud in the sky to diffuse the bright sun, yet allow the ice to reflect back the blue in the sky. Below is a selection of some interesting ice formations from here.

Winter River Details
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 230mm ISO 50 f36 @ 0.3 sec, Nikon Polarizing Filter

Winter River Details
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR lens @ 240mm, ISO 50 f36 @ 0.3 sec, Nikon Polarizing Filter

Winter River Details
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR Lens @ 230mm, ISO 50 f40 @ 0.8 sec, Nikon Polarizing Filter

Winter River Details
Nikon D800, Nikon 80-400mm VR Lens @ 230mm, ISO 50 f40 @ 0.3 sec, Nikon Polarizing Filter

Please do remember to click on each image to view the larger, sharper version.

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The Ice Storm of 2013

Farm-scape after ice storm near Bradford, Ontario

On Christmas Eve day I spent several hours driving around to take in the beauty of the ice laden landscape and create a few fresh photographs. For these images I wanted to focus on the beauty that the ice storm created. To me it appears as though the landscape is made of crystal.

Hope you enjoy these scenes…to see the larger, sharper versions please click on each image 🙂

Winter pond after ice storm near Cookstown, Ontario

Holland River after ice storm near Bradford, Ontario

Ice laden trees lining agricultural field near Bradford, Ontario

Ice laden trees lining agricultural field near Bradford, Ontario with a panoramic crop

 

 

 

 

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Winter River Detail

A small stream near my house provided some opportunities for images of winter river details. I love shooting these type of images and could spend an entire day creating various compositions of the patterns that exist in river ice.

Hope you like the image.

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Ice-scapes

After yesterday’s afternoon with the Mallards, I began shooting some of the various patterns in the frozen surface of Lake Ontario where it met the open water. Often it seems that there is an endless array of patterns to capture. All the images here were photographed with my 80-400 VR lens (with VR off) and a Nikon polarizer. The polarizer was used to slow down time so that the rippled surface of the lake would be rendered smooth. Here are my favorite ice-scapes from yesterday.

This image was captured when there was minimal merging among the floating pancakes of ice

A late day sun warmed-up this ice-scape

Photographed minutes after the above image when the sun went behind a cloud.

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