Yes, it’s U-shaped, but to the best of my knowledge it’s still a nail. This one is sticking out of the top of a horizontal fence post out by my property, and I’m glad it is. The frost (yes, Rime Ice) on this one is blasting its way eastward.

It looks like a blast, doesn’t it? I mean, literally? Well, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. This was on Day One: the Saturday when we first woke up to spikes of ice and frost attached to everything. Those tended to be more fine, needle-like structures attached to everything. But that was only the beginning.

Fast forward a few days, and we had an entirely different type of ice develop out here. First, it seemed windier. Second, the temperature was different. And the way the ice and frost developed…well, that was entirely different as well.

How would I even describe this? Feather? Sure. Explosive? Definitely. It was something I’ve never experienced before with my camera, and I was absolutely delighted.

Here’s one that’s more natural. If you’ve paid close attention to my frost (Rime Ice) photos so far, you may have noticed the clean backgrounds on most of the shot. That’s no accident. Because the background was typically white, there’s no way I would have achieved the definition I wanted by just pointing my camera and clicking away. Or maybe something else was in the background which would act as a distraction. So how did I solve this problem? I improvised, and made a little experiment out of it.

I have a number of pieces of colored matte board from when I used to frame my own photo prints. I won some art show awards, and I even sold some prints (not enough for that new camera I’ve wanted for six years), but I gave up on that sort of thing long ago. Well, I cut down some various matte boards in a variety of colors and took them with, holding them in the background while I clicked away with a remote shutter release. I like how they turned out, especially considering the alternative. There’s no way I could have captured the detail if I didn’t have a contrasting background to work with. I hope it doesn’t look artificial…but even if it does, in this case I think the detail is worth it.

I still have plenty more frost photos, and I hope to put them out in a themed fashion as well. See you soon!

Not for the fjords, mind you. I ventured about, searching for a variety of pines, and boy, did I succeed.

I found a variety of pine needle shapes, in a variety of orientations, with a variety of ice formations attached to them. And here we go…

I love the funnel-like cone of some of these. I hadn’t paid such close attention to the pine trees near my place, but I found out rather quickly that they’ve got some really interesting features!

Even among similarly shaped pine branches, I found an assortment of icy spikes on them.

These were so breathtaking, I didn’t even notice how cold it was outside…or how long I’d been standing out in that cold. Didn’t matter.

The orientation of the ice spikes tends to convey a sense of motion, or at least an indication of some bitter wind as they formed overnight.

What I found interesting was how some of the needles were coated in ice, while others were completely unscathed.

Others were barren on one side, but blasted with ice on the other. That makes a wonderful photo like this one possible.

Any guesses which direction the wind was blowing the night before? I’m gonna say from the right side of this photo. Call it a hunch.

Naturally the long-needled pines wanted to get into the game, as well. We can’t let the short-needled guys have all the fun.

There’s something star-shaped about this one which caught my eye. The direction of the spikes seems to convey a rotation of sorts, despite their haphazard directions.

Plastered. It’s hard to tell just exactly what is under all that ice, but trust me: it’s a pine branch.

It’s almost like a hairdo when it’s on one side, isn’t it? This one could be in a punk band, or maybe an eighties New Wave group.

And, with this glorious specimen, I’m spent. At least on the pine photos. I have plenty more frost (yes, Rime Ice) photos yet to come in future posts, but I’m trying to theme each of them. Stay tuned…

Never pass up the opportunity to make a Neil Diamond reference. Ever. I’m happy to say that plenty of trees around my place still have these red delights hanging from their branches, and I took advantage of it.

Here’s a big bunch of cherries for y’all – how about those spikes? They’re absolutely glorious. They were so voluminous that they actually lasted for a couple of days on some of the trees.

For instance, this duo. I took this shot a couple of days after the initial frost (yes, Rime Ice) had appeared. You can tell it was wearing thin, but it still remained.

But back to the initial spikes. They look like thorns, they’re so long and sharp! I can’t help but sound like a broken record: these are the finest examples of this phenomenon I’ve ever witnessed.

The geometry of the tree branches, the red of the berries, and the unique nature of the frozen spikes made for days’ worth of photographic fun.

To quote the first Captain America movie: I could do this all day. There was so much going on out there, it was impossible to capture each unique and breathtaking example of such a rare occurrence.

She got the way to move me, as the song says. I couldn’t get enough.

Here, the ice almost obscures the fruit! Even better: it helps illustrate just how incredibly fortunate we were to get a blast of weather like this.

Do your eyes start at the bottom, and follow the geometry of the branch upward, or do they start at the top and work their way to the tip of the branch? I always do the latter…although the branch starting in the upper left may play a factor.

I call this one the Glen Plake Berry. It reminds me of my mohawk. Yes, I had a nineteen inch mohawk back in my 20s. It was part of that decade and a half long “extreme sports” phase which did so much for my psyche and my orthopedic history.

That’s it for now – I’ll have more themed posts coming up for…well, for a while. I worked this occurrence like a rented mule, and I have plenty to show for it. I can’t wait to share more of them!