I shot this ice image along with my other ice patterns back last month. This one sat in my ‘to-do’ que for awhile. I go back to these over time and determine how I want to handle some images that just don’t thrill me out of the camera. I have images sitting since last year that I am still contemplating. There were subtle hints of some of the natural oils/bacterial films I was playing with before mixed in with some rather interesting ice patterns. I sensed potential for it to be something, but just wasn’t sure what it would be.
So I sat down to work on this one, did some layer blends here and there, some masking and selective color adjustments. I began reinterpreting the image. I was really just having some fun playing. Then it started to develop into something quite interesting, uniquely bizarre, and I began thinking I was designing props for the movie series “Alien.” So here is my Alien Ice – perhaps this is what ice looked like when it was on Mars.
beautiful abstraction of color and line and form. sometimes the ‘playing’ after the capture is as much fun as the capture itself, no? i like the post processing you’ve done on this…not overdone, just right. i’m sometimes guilty of that one…if a little is good…. 😉
as an aside, i love your watermark. it is effective without overpowering your images, not to mention it is a very cool logo. we’d love to come up with something like that for our business as well.
peace, heather
Beautiful abstraction, Mark. So glad to hear that you are having fun exploring the possibilities of your image. For me, that’s what it’s all about.
Thank you all for the comments!
This image is very cool. I also have many files of images that I have not even looked at in a year. Just waiting for the right time and feeling to have a look.
Hi, Mark! Lovely ice image here; the rainbow effect is wonderful. I came to your site several days ago via a recommendation from Michael Brown’s website and spent several hours looking at all of your photographs, and it was kind of scary for me, to tell you the truth — I couldn’t find one that I disliked! 🙂 Your bird photos are especially inspiring, and I appreciate the approach you take in photographing them in the context of their environment. In any event, it was a very pleasant coincidence that your kind comments appeared on my site immediately following my initial visit here. Thank you for that, and thanks for sharing your insights and your beautiful images.
Hey Mark, I’m still looking for this oil and ice combo, but maybe next year.(or maybe this year the way the weathers been). This group you shot really came out nice. Colors are beautiful and great patterns.
I love the colors and patterns in this.. and I think we all have a ‘to do’ folder.. (in my case I have many, I still have photos to edit from my trip to OK last year!) Sometimes waiting is a good thing, until we feel inspired enough to play. If I force myself to work on an image before I feel that urge, it usually doesn’t morph into something I’m happy with.
I certainly know the feeling Mark with letting images to sit in your folders, … not knowing what to do with them or to keep them.
Playing with them though seems to open up the doors for you, allowing you to come to a decision.
And, … this image shown here is excellent!
Is that some of the colorful “oils” trapped under the ice that I see?
I also have an “incoming” folder which contains work I’m not sure I know what I want to do with. I have one project in there, a couple hundred images, that I know have a lot of potential — I just haven’t figured out what to do with them yet! One of these days, I’ll figure it out.