Cubist Phantasmogoria

Image Critiques Landscape Critiques
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Cubist Phastmagoria.jpg
Cubist Phastmagoria.jpg2000×1334 1.09 MB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

After 36 hours of below freezing weather, I went looking for Birefringent Ice. Most of the time the ice was too thick to show birefringent colors, but I did find this area on the C&O canal. I have no idea why the colors are so different in the top left & center (although it’s probably ice thickness), but like the tonal change.

Specific Feedback

This is a natural phenomenon with the area in the photo roughly 10 feet across so I’m putting it in landscape as fully natural. The only “manipulation” is the required use of a polarizer.

Technical Details

R5, 100-500 @ 135, 1/25 s, f/14, iso 800, tripod and polarizer.

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Mark, this one took me back to the 60’s and psychedelic colors of that era. A bit of Timothy Leary affect or effect taking place here. I think I had a Paisley Tie or two from those days.
The colors are amazing. Not familiar with the term Birefringent Ice at all. However, I have seen wild colors in water and ice brought on by oils being leached from the surrounding soils. Any contributing factors there by chance?
Regardless, you found a really neat color kaleidoscope in this scene… :sunglasses:

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Mark: Oh now you’re just showing off :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:. What an amazing spectacle and resultant image. Almost makes me crave cold . . . . but then again, maybe not :roll_eyes:. I’ll just sit back and enjoy your work.>=))>

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Mark,
My thoughts pretty much echo those of @Paul_Breitkreuz and @Bill_Fach on this mind bending image. This is amazing and I love the array of warm and cool tones across the scene as well as the multitude of shapes. Very cool image!

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Out of curiosity, did you have to drop acid to take this? :wink:

You really are a master of the ice abstracts Mark, and this one is truly psychedelic.

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@Paul_Breitkreuz, the colors seen when there’s a thin layer of oil, etc. floating on the water are a different phenomenon, called thin film interference. The colors in thin layers of ice (Birefringence) is a more complex process that requires the use of a polarizer (or polarized light) to be seen.

@John_Williams, didn’t use acid, but folks seeing me tilting my head back and forth while looking through my polarized sunglasses to find the colors may have wondered… :grinning:

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Here is a great description of birefringence from Nikon (here) and if you are inclined to reading mathematics (here) Ice is a birefringence crystal.