Saturday, March 03, 2007

Ice Out

Winter is coming to an end here in south central Pennsylvania. With warming temperatures and a heavy rain Thursday night the creek threw off its winter cover.
Sadly I did not get to document the event but this morning I was able to photograph the aftermath. I remember ice out from my youth, a time when we lived very near the creek. With the first heavy rain I could hear a cracking and booming sound coming from the creek. Soon this would be followed by a heavy roar of breaking and grinding ice as the large ice sheets would be broken and pushed along by the rushing current slamming into each other and everything else in their path.



As the water level recedes large chunks of ice lay strewn along the creek



Here a block of ice became wedged between trees



To capture this image I set my camera on macro and
put the rim of the lens against the side of an ice block



The trees in this photo are growing on a small island
Notice the damage to their trunks inflicted by the ice


We nearly experienced a tragedy during this event. A neighbor of ours who moved here from the city a few years ago came within a hairsbreadth of losing his life in the creek Friday. He is fine and much the wiser for his experience, but that story must wait until my next post.

6 comments:

Lucy said...

I'm glad your neighbor is okay and I'm looking forward to the complete story!

photowannabe said...

The breaking ice must have a lot of power to shoot it between the trees and on the banks. I love the macro of the ice chunk.
I am glad your neighbor is ok. Can't wait for your next post.

Kekiinani said...

WOW thank goodness your neighbor is AOK.. Will await your next post for further info. :) :).. Thanks for the info on the ice out... never heard nor experienced it but I find it very interesting. Love the ice macro. :) :)and the ice wedged in the trees.. quite interesting :) :)

Unknown said...

How interesting. I would love to experience an ice out. I always just figured the ice melted and flowed away with the water.

Chad Oneil Myers said...

The one against the ice is my favorite.

...Do tell about the mishap!

LZ Blogger said...

Love the ICE SHOT! Really nice! ~ jb///