The other day while ice fishing we noticed incredible frost crystallization around the prior day's holes and in our earlier footsteps. After we were done fishing, I came back out with my camera to try and capture the amazing brilliance of the crystals.
The sun was beginning to set over the lake and the entire area was spiky with diamonds. While it doesn't look like much here, it was breathtaking to see in person:
Up close, this is what was catching the sun, hundreds of gold frost "leaves:"
While incredibly small, they were some of the largest frost leaves I have seen, nearly .5" in length.
As the sun set, it really began to light up the crystals. I love this illuminated stack, looks a foreign creature glowing from within:
The most challenging part of photographing these? Not melting them with my breath while lying on the snow trying to focus on them! This is one of the better shots showing both the gold of the sunset and some of the incredible detail in the frost leaf:
Don't you love all the unexpected treats that winter brings?
(I'm thrilled to be back after taking a month off of nearly all electronics except as required for my work. It was lovely to spend the month of December with family and friends and at our cabin. I hope you had a fun end to 2012 and are having a great start to 2013. Thanks for reading my blog!)
