Winter's Warmth II

Snow, ice and golden light in the Columbia River Gorge of Oregon, February 2014.

This is another image from the Columbia River Gorge during the cold and snow in February 2013. I previously posted another image from this location, but there were several comments about the lack of detail in the foreground. This image includes an ice formation in the foreground. I'm interested to hear which image you like better. I will post the original in the comments below.

For those of you who are curious, the ice on the bottom of the creek is called frazil ice. This type of ice actually forms on the surface of of the creeks when the air temperature is extremely cold. When the air temp is below freezing, the surface of the water releases heat into the air and the water briefly becomes supercooled (less than 32 degrees). This supercooling allows ice crystals to rapidly form on the surface. Then the turbulence of the water column can push the frazil ice crystals to the bottom of the stream, where they can adhere to the upstream side of rocks, logs and other objects. Ice usually floats, but the small size of frazil ice crystals and the force of the current allows it to be carried to the bottom. The foreground frazil ice formations on the right hand side of this image are on the upstream side of a medium size rock that was just outside of the frame in the lower right hand corner. Pretty cool!

Nikon D800, Nikkor 16-35, polarizer
3 image blend for DOF
1 sec at f/16, ISO 100

Thanks for any comments or suggestions you have. Please check out the larger version.