Ice Pictures from February 3, 2011

Five days after the first storm, and the ice is still clinging to the trees in Illinois. It is impossible for me to capture the brilliance of a panoramic view with a camera, so close-up photos will have to suffice. The panorama is simply breathtaking to behold, proving once again that "being there" offers a greater experience than looking at photos (I'll make a quick analogy to the experience of hearing live music recorded music within these parentheses, and then I'll go back to my "rhapsody on ice"). The bright sun creates little dots of color when the ice on the branches refracts its light, like millions of prisms.

[The top photo shows ground level, and the bottom photo looks straight up into a tall tree that is covered entirely in ice.]




UPDATE: Our local paper has a breathtaking collection of ice photographs.