With all the snow storms, we have had lots of icicles forming as the snow melts and re-freezes around the house and gutters. Most of ice that formed after the recent snow storms has melted, so I headed out to Foxton on the South Platte River. I like to go to Waterton for ice photography, but the canyon is currently closed. After arriving at Foxton, I found plenty of ice and snow in the river bed. The pink granite rocks poked out above the snow, forming little pink mountain peaks.
Pink Mountains In The Snow
The ice is pretty thick, covering much of the river with ice bridges. Occasionally the ice collapsed, breaking the monotony of the flat white snowy surface with angular slabs.
Ice In The Platte River, Foxton
The smooth snow surfaces looked like white desert landscapes. During the late afternoon, the low sun revealed the texture of ridges on the surface of the snow. Several critters had trampled through the snow, leaving their tracks behind.
Tracks In The Snow, Foxton
In places, the ice surrounding rocks and boulders had either collapsed or had melted away. This can form an ice skirt around the boulders, as can be seen in the image below.
Rock And Ice, Foxton
Most of the area around the river is white and brown. However, I did find this one bunch of red berries hidden among some red willow branches.
Red Berries By The Platte River
I made another image that was converted to black and white. The snow rendered as white and the boulders as a dark gray. This image was photographed in the shade. During the winter months, shaded snow is often an intense blue as a result of being lit by the blue sky and not direct sunlight. I applied a cyanotype tone to the image. This is a traditional darkroom toning technique that applies a cyan (or pale blue) tone to shadow areas. The shadow textures in the snow and the darker boulders were rendered with a blue tone contrasting with the white highlights of the snow.
Snow On Rocks, Foxton
Soon the sun disappeared behind the clouds, as the next round of snow came in for the day. Time to return home.