One morning in March, when I was looking outside at breakfast time, I was amazed to see the sun hitting the multiple ice sculptures pending under the rain gutter longing my covered balcony.

Rain gutters are full of snow during wintertime. When the weather gets warmer, the snow melts, and water flows over the gutter, slowly creating ice sculptures. The scene was so nice that I had to capture it.

I grabbed my camera with my long focal lens and the flash. I took a kitchen chair to serve as a ladder! Doing so, I was at the ice sculptures level. With my gear familiarity, I planned to use the following to capture the scene
-A long focal lens (420 mm focal length) would be used to isolate the subject.
-A large aperture would be used to have a blurred background.
-The global scene would be underexposed by one stop.
-The flash settings would be to overexpose the scene by one stop. Thus, my subject would be well lighted compared to the darker global scene.
-I took 15 shots along the balcony to capture several pending ice sculptures.

In postproduction in LR, I rotated this scene by 180 degrees for the first time to have this pending ice jewel on top of the icy pad!

This beauty and its fine details leave plenty of room for your imagination. This simple scene reveals the importance of paying attention to details in our close vicinity and the importance of gear familiarity.

It is appropriate to practice locally. I exercised in front of my house to seize this magical moment. Don't wait to be in a photographer's paradise to practice!