The Deschutes River near Bend, Oregon, USA never freezes. But, when the low winter temperatures persist for consecutive days, beautiful natural world rock, water and ice abstracts form along the shoreline.
On this day a short walk along the river revealed a plethora of photo opportunities. My goal was to blend nature’s natural world beauty with my photographic abstract vision.
The challenge was to safely get to the water and avoid a cold water swim!
I spent a good long time picking a spot. I needed a spot that was a few feet from shore and would accommodate me and my tripod with camera. I found a trio of large rocks that provided me three points of contact for the tripod and just enough room for me to stand.
I framed the subject intending to create the illusion the icy form was teetering on, or floating above, the submerged rock just below it. After a good deal of experimenting, I decided the 50 second exposure smoothed the fast moving water around the icy object enough to achieve my objective.
All together I stood on the boulder as swift water passed for about 45 minutes. Retreating to the shoreline would be more difficult than getting out there. I cautiously folded the tripod and retraced my steps to shore. It wasn’t until I reached the shore than I realized just how cold my feet and hands were.