Almost Touching

This was taken back on Valentine’s Day, February 14. This is actually a large block of saltwater ice that was left on shore after the tide went out. A couple of warm days, and the icicles really started forming on the bottom, reaching down to touch the icy surface below.
I did change this to a B&W, as the original had a lot of brownish tones from the dirt embedded in the ice.

Any technical changes needed?

Can you tell what this is? Would it be better if I didn’t say what it was??? Is it weird looking?

Taken with Fuji X-T1, 18-135 lens @ 80 mm, 1/250 sec, f 13, ISO 800.

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Tyranosaurus - that’s what it says to me. Was that the intention? If not then I would be careful about compositions that suggest associations that you don’t want. Or maybe that’s a good thing. It’s interesting that if I crop this image (remove the upper mandible) then I lose that connection and respond to it in the way you likely intended.

Genny, what an amazing find you have here, this was a great bit of seeing on your part. The ice has an almost organic feeling to it, it is amazing what shapes mother nature can create with ice. I love the luminosity you have on the hanging icicles, the tones look just perfect there. Really nice work here.

If you wanted to go for a more abstract interpretation of this scene, you may want to consider a squarish crop that emphasizes the icicles. Here is a rework of that, and I also added some stronger vignetting to place even further emphasis on the ice.

Genny,

Wow, what a great find! My first question, is how the heck were you able to photograph this? To me, I just get the impression you’re laying belly-down in a bunch of wet muck; cold and messy. But then probably it wasn’t as bad as I’m imagining. Certainly glad you captured this though!

I was thinking right along with Ed. The left third or so isn’t really contributing much to the overall impression - although we do get a little context. But the story is on the right and those ice formations just nearly touching their reflections.

I’m wondering about even raising the luminosity a bit, but this works beautifully as presented.

Only other suggestion would be to clone out the tips of ice in the LRC.

Lon

Wonderful ice formations! I do like the way @Ed_McGuirk’s crop emphasizes the right. I think ice and snow images can take a slight bit of cool toning. Opinions vary, but I like the effect.

A great thing to have found and photographed so well. You’ve really exploited the range of greys to bring us that sense you must have had when you photographed it. I also agree with the crop and vignette Ed has suggested ‐ tightens up the overall form and emphasises what’s important. A really enjoyable image.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Igor- Tyranosaurus? Yeah, I guess I can see that. About 10 years ago I photographed a big chunk of grounded sea ice that was probably 20 ft long and 3 ft thick, and it very much looked like a prehistoric critter!!
Ed, Lon, John and Phillip - thanks for the comments and the crop idea. I really liked the tiny “shoreline” over on the far left, and that’s why I kept that part, but I guess the interest really is over on the right, and yes, I should have seen those 2 little icicle bits in the LRC.
FYI, I was down on one knee in the muck, leaning over, bracing myself against my other leg and holding my breath the whole time I took the picture.