We have more snow coming to the Sierra Nevada this weekend and possibly here at Topaz Lake on Monday, but we're starting to get much warmer weather between storms, green grass is starting to grow in pastures, rose bushes and cottonwood trees are starting to sprout leaves, bats have returned, and birds are building nests.
One of the more photogenic Spring rituals is the thawing of frozen creeks and waterfalls in the Sierra Nevada. As roads to passes and trailheads start to open, photographers gain access to high elevation creeks, and the melting ice palaces many of them contain. The coolest locations hold ice the longest, in deep, shady canyons facing east to north, avoiding sun in the hottest part of the day. Higher elevations ensure re-freezing at night. This photo is from May 1, 2011, so even with the lighter snowpack this year, I'm hopeful that we still have 2-3 more weeks to find and enjoy nature's temporary ice sculptures.
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Brrrrrr! Beautiful colors & composition. Thanks.
It is a nice post ,dear Jeff .
Totally sweet capture. You have frozen water flow and static ice crystals on top. Brilliant!
Wonderful picture!
amazing!!!
That's gorgeous… wish I was physically able to hike to the place where this pic was taken. I have a lung disease that keeps me fairly grounded. I'm so glad folks like you has the ability to do this…May God Bless you and keep you safe!
This year has been a bit too chaotic so far. Debbie and I are seriously overdue for some mountain R&R.
Wonderful spring-thaw stream photo, +Jeff Sullivan
Super very nice
Tolle Aufnahme
Magnifique
Super
Amazing!!
very nice
Beautiful…just amazing!!!!!!
lovely 🙂
Did you use a lens filter or polarizer?
It's hard to remember 3 years later +Amanda Eccleston, but usually in this situation I'd use a polarizer rotated to maximum strength to cut some of the light reflected off the ice crystals in the sun. An added benefit from cutting the light is enabling the longer exposures. I may have also cut ISO sensitivity to 50 and closed down the aperture to f/22 (I can't bring up the photo at the moment since with Windows 8 and only 8GB of RAM (and other apps running) that might crash Chrome).
+Jeff Sullivan – Wonderful technique I've called into play more than once. I also tried that same trick during an afternoon thunderstorm to lengthen the shutter speed to better the odds of catching anything. Can you guess how fine-lined the lightning bolts came out at f/22? (Can you guess how hard I had to look at each frame to figure if I really caught one…which I did?)
Cool!
Wow!!!
C'est super
这拍的是什么？
beautiful,,,
ما هذا
Amazing Jeff!! Got another picture??
Nice detail shot…there's still quite a bit of ice up on the Whitney Portal falls.
Wooooooh.. so cool:-*
Hey my sister lives at Topaz Lake! Terri & Dave, Nevada High Speed 🙂
No way +Lynn Keay (this comment is coming to you through their service, lol)! Thank goodness Terri & Dave started that service… +Sprint was a nightmare.
It was in the 60s and possibly 70s here a couple of weeks ago, this morning it's snowing here… one last gasp of Winter I think, for a few hours, before Spring takes over.
Small world, hey great for you and them that's crazy. Good to know that. I love Topaz Lake sunrises.
Wow
Wow! Love your photos
Yes +Jean Day, I may stop there as I pass by tomorrow. Maybe now that we've mentioned it, I'll see some of our G+ friends there!
I've put a few time-lapse videos from Topaz Lake over on +YouTube +Lynn Keay:
Intense Sunrise Cropped: Lenticular Reflections
http://youtu.be/DCbW0g82jys
Here's another shot from this creek +Queennie Chong Lee Lee: https://plus.google.com/photos/107459220492917008623/albums/5635944237903646865/5644489593580217794
Thanks!
Awesome
Wow!!