Looking for ice

We had sunshine on Wednesday and it was cold as a Well Diggers ____________, you can fill in the blank.

My friend Bill wanted to go and the winds were absolutely wicked so I picked a hike that would get us out of the wind and next to the Kickapoo River.

These first photos are from that hike. We had Yak Traks but should have had snowshoes as we were 'off' trail and the snow was icy crunchy and pretty tough to walk in. Bill was okay with that as he said the effort was a good test to see if his hip and knee were feeling better.

Bill's commentary was constant, telling me about adventures with his grand kids and then he'd stop and wonder where we were and I'd assure him we were not lost. Next he'd stand still and say, "Wow...Oh Wow!"

This one is my favorite from the ice bluffs and the last one I did with my 'normal' camera.

Note the slight colors in the ice. Pretty cool right? Well I also brought my little pocket camera that is a Full Spectrum Infrared camera. That means I can use different filters for different light spectrums. I chose the 665nm filter. 

The first shot is 'channel swapped'. With the 665nm filter blue skies are orange and green is bluish-white while rocks reflect a blue-grey. It all depends on your subject for white balance for the filter and how you want your colors to appear.  

These last two are not color edited. I simply de-saturated the blues. And let the ice reflection that appears orange come through.

Most IR photographers put their cameras away during the winter months, but I think it is fun to see winter in a different light.

Part II is coming.

I went out Friday to clear my head. Wind chills were -15, but I was prepared and I wanted to go visit the Wiester Creek Ice formations and hike up over the ridge on the old horse trail.