Christina made me do it: Ice Abstracts

[Mike Buckley]

Christina suggested that I place my potato that resembles a seal on some ice. It's not a great photo but that's certainly not her fault. The idea, though, got me thinking about other possibilities also shown below.

She has such impeccable timing. She gave me the idea yesterday and today we had record low temperatures by a wide margin in our area. So, it was on this unbelievably cold day that I spent almost the entire time in my makeshift studio, which is in an external storage room. It has a small heater, so I left the door open to make sure the room would be sufficiently frigid to work with ice. I wore four layers of clothes including my heaviest winter coat, gloves, chemical hand warmers and mittens all day thanks to Christina.

If you want to know what it's like balancing chunks of ice on top of each other, imagine connecting very slippery, wet, cold, curved Legos that have no posts or holes and no two pieces shaped alike.

I can't begin to accurately describe the results of spraying a black acrylic tabletop with Windex when the temperature is well below the freezing temperature of water. I'll only tell you that I'll never try that trick again; it was not a pretty sight and it took me forever to remedy it. Christina didn't warn me about that, so it will take me quite awhile to get over being mad at her.

EDIT: A fifth photo is displayed later in the thread.


Photo 1



Photo 2



Photo 3



Photo 4: Christina's Seal -- fun but forgettable

[Rita]

It seems to me that you have a wonderful ability to turn the very simple into something magnificent. And that is a big 'seal' of enjoyment of your images

[pnodrog]

Your seal is known as a red kumara in New Zealand but as you are never visiting us again I suppose it is useless information. I prefer the first two and I do appreciate the enormous thermal sacrifice you made to achieve the shots. Christina don't worry Mike is easily upset a bit like van Gogh and other creative people... (probably get a photo of an ear in a glass next week)

[ShaneS]

I'm with L.Paul in my thinking that the first two images are the best, I would say superb, and I suppose that we owe Christina a big thanks for the inspiration. The third image is nice too but not quite as dramatic as the first two.

Mike, I laughed at your description of the ice being like slippery curved legos and I could only think that you just needed to get them into position and then wait a few seconds until they froze that way I actually saw a post somewhere today where a company got one of their t-shirts wet and took it outside to see how long it would take to freeze and the result was one minute (it was in the shape of one that was being worn and not just a lump BTW).

I hope that your next post won't be one telling Christina that she owes you a package of cold medicine...oh, the price we pay for our art

[Bobobird]

That is a cool idea and brilliantly executed.

Certainly worth a try up here, plenty of that stuff around. But since moving into a condo a while back a luxurious shed like Mike's in no longer available to me and will have to brave the wild -40s here. Perhaps I should'nt.

[siggi]

Photo 2 -love the reflection and composition

[IzzieK]

I'm with Siggi -- I love #2 for the reflection. Thank you for your hard work just to prove your resilience...and macho-ness in braving the cold

[Shadowman]

Very nice, like the seal.

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you everyone! You won't be surprised to learn that I've got some responses...

I've never been accused of being macho before, so it's apparent that I should have photographed ice decades ago.

While in New Zealand, I very quickly learned to love the combination of venison and red kumara chips; it would be difficult to find a place where they prepare and present them better. However, the seal is a simple white potato. (EDIT: I was wrong. It's what we call a sweet potato, which is the same as a kumara.] Even so, bravo to L. Paul for writing the funniest post among other very funny posts.

Why don't potatoes have spuds any more? I could have positioned one just so to resemble the seal's eye for our dear Christina.

Speaking of endearing people, consider that Shane lives in Hawaii. So, it's understandable that she doesn't appreciate that ice by its very nature is already frozen (where is Mr. Science when we need him?) and that it does absolutely no good to position pieces and wait for them to freeze together. We'll politely give her a pass but only this one time.

Bobo should be ashamed, not for writing that the concept is a "cool" idea but for not realizing that he made use of the pun.

For the record, the ice is from a bag purchased at my local 7-Eleven store two blocks away. It was the coldest weather I had ever walked in since moving to the Washington, D.C. area in 1972. However, I had walked in colder weather and for far greater distances when I was in college in Chicago, which by the way had colder temperatures yesterday than the South Pole. Yesterday was a very good day not to be in Chicago.

[Brownbear]

Oh, Mike... these are absolutely exquisite and my absolute favourites of all your breathtakingly gorgeous images!

I knew you would be able to capture the intricate and delicate beauty of ice with all of shades, shadows and lights. The ice pieces look like jewelery, and I bet that these works of art will make you famous!

I'm torn between the 1st and the 2nd image as my favourites, and at this point in time I think I will choose the 2nd image because the perfect symmetry allows the full beauty of the ice formation to be appreciated. (ie, darker reflection) But I also love #3 because the close up view shows all the gorgeous light and detail, close up.

And I adore the seal image (including his wet underside and the sense that she is climbing up an iceberg). (Spud or no spud I I can see her eye ) If this is a crop I wonder what the image would look like with more space? Also if you are ever so inclined to try the seal thing again, I think a landscape image of an iceberg with a seal, or two, or more would be absolutely precious.

I also thoroughly enjoyed your story, and I can't imagine being so cold (thanks for the tip on hand-warmers, I think I will look for some of these for myself)

I can't imagine how incredibly difficult this must of been, and if I could've been there to help with the Windex (what happens) I would've been there!

Truly Exquisite!

[Brownbear]

Christina don't worry Mike is easily upset a bit like van Gogh and other creative people... (probably get a photo of an ear in a glass next week)

If that happens I will deal with it... I just wanted to nudge our temperamental artist, just a little bit to reach his peak potential, and well worth the risk!

[chauncey]

Mike, your work with glass shows through with the ice images but, where did you get the ice. It looks cloudy.

[Mike Buckley]

I'm glad you like the photos, Christina. The limitations pertaining mostly to the size of my makeshift studio and the lighting method that I used required the relatively close-up view of your seal. I agree that it would be much nicer to make an all-encompassing landscape with the seal being a much, much smaller part of the image. As it is, the photo of your seal was by far the most difficult to construct. Getting the seal to remain properly positioned on two chunks of ice held in place by the weight of modeling clay on the left and a tape measure on the right was a real challenge that almost made me abandon your seal photo.

Chauncey: I also would have preferred clearer ice, as I had images much more like photos of my clear glass in mind when Christina gave me the idea. The ice is from a 7-Eleven store. I actually don't know if clearer ice made for consumption is a reasonable expectation. Probably not at the low cost of about $2.30 for a 10-pound bag.

[Mike Buckley]

You folks seem to like the photos enough that I've added the one shown below that I had originally decided not to display. It's made of three chunks of ice combined to hopefully look like one continuous piece, though that particular detail isn't important to me.


Photo 5

[Brownbear]

I love these photos!

I'm sorry about the seal and clearly I had no understanding of how difficult something like this is to set up. Thanks for not abandoning my seal. I like the texture in the cloudy ice, and I also adore the image you just posted.

PS I just took an ice cube out of the fridge and ran water over it. It makes the ice clear.

PPS And I'm truly honoured that you tried my idea. Thank you.

I'm glad you like the photos, Christina. The limitations pertaining mostly to the size of my makeshift studio and the lighting method that I used required the relatively close-up view of your seal. I agree that it would be much nicer to make an all-encompassing landscape with the seal being a much, much smaller part of the image. As it is, the photo of your seal was by far the most difficult to construct. Getting the seal to remain properly positioned on two chunks of ice held in place by the weight of modeling clay on the left and a tape measure on the right was a real challenge that almost made me abandon your seal photo.

Chauncey: I also would have preferred clearer ice, as I had images much more like photos of my clear glass in mind when Christina gave me the idea. The ice is from a 7-Eleven store. I actually don't know if clearer ice made for consumption is a reasonable expectation. Probably not at the low cost of about $2.30 for a 10-pound bag.

[Mike Buckley]

That's great to know about "rinsing" the ice, Christina. I could make macro shots of individual pieces of ice. I'll also eventually get around to trying your trick with chunks of ice but wonder if it will affect only the pieces of ice on the perimeter, leaving the remaining pieces cloudy, which would be almost all of them. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

I also wonder if there is somewhere in town that I could buy a large block of ice made of one piece like used to be regularly available decades ago.

[Brownbear]

Sounds too complicated but http://www.icekristals.com/

That's great to know about "rinsing" the ice, Christina. I could make macro shots of individual pieces of ice. I'll also eventually get around to trying your trick with chunks of ice but wonder if it will affect only the pieces of ice on the perimeter, leaving the remaining pieces cloudy, which would be almost all of them. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

I also wonder if there is somewhere in town that I could buy a large block of ice made of one piece like used to be regularly available decades ago.

[Mike Buckley]

I forgot to mention only as a matter of interest that none of the images are desaturated or converted to black-and-white.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks for looking that company up, Christina. Unfortunately, all of their locations are a long distance from me. If I had a larger studio, I would contact them about photographing their ice sculptures, as it's apparent that they need better photos.

[AndrewMcD]

Mike,
Superb images! I am absolutely fascinated with your glass and now you ice images. At your recommendation I am working my way through Light: Science and Magic.
I was once tasked with producing clear ice...........at the South Pole. The key is controlled growth rate and the removal of all dissolved gasses from the water. The result of our work is now being used to detect neutrinos at South Pole station. I suspect rinsing the ice is sufficient for art!
Andrew