I went out this morning looking for interesting ice patterns and the natural plant oils (bacterial films found in swampy areas) I posted about before that look like abstract paintings. There are a lot of swampy areas in the woods behind my house which should be good spots for finding these oils that are formed by decaying plant material. I found combinations of both the ice patterns and the oils. What is kind of interesting about finding these is that you can’t really see the plant oils in the ice unless you have a polarizer. To the naked eye, the ice patterns look fairly transparent. A slight rotation on the polarizer, and you can see the trails where the oil is seeping into the pond and ended up freezing within the ice! Pretty cool! It is sort of like being a CSI and searching for hidden stains. 🙂
Aurora Borealis in Michigan
Unless you've been living under a rock for the weekend, it is no surprise to see thousands of images from the extreme G5 geomagnetic storm, which triggered auroras down to Florida—reportedly the largest in 20 years. Many people seeing the aurora for the first time,...




I like this image…well done!
That is really cool photo Mark! Great tip.
Excellent. Thanks for the polarizer tip.
Very cool stuff. I didn’t know about any of this swamp oil and am very glad you posted it as well as the link back, through your older post to Mike Moats explanation of the stuff. I will have to keep an eye out. Who would have thought of looking for it with a polarizer? Great shot!
Very cool find Mark, I haven’t been able to find this oil frozen yet. Well done.