Creating Ice and Architecture Abstracts
I’m quite sure I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, I am a winter person. Fresh snow and cold temperatures invigorate me. That crisp air I live for.
That also means I enjoy being out with my camera looking for winter compositions. Every winter many photographers wait eagerly for the temps to drop low enough for ice to form on the Chicago River.
The ice floating on the river adds a new look to the city. While many choose to photograph large river sections using wide angles and including the buildings, I do my thing.
I choose to find unique compositions. Looking for unusual scenes and ways to incorporate the ice, water and architecture make me excited to photograph this area.
Capturing the city’s skyline mirrored in the river is a favorite pastime, but when ice adds its artistic touch, the photos become truly captivating.
It’s funny, these images were created during a group photo outing. Everyone else was capturing the wide views, the bridges, the buildings and the cityscape along the river. There are so many opportunities for photos it can be overwhelming.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by so many options, zoom in! Pick one thing to concentrate on. It’ll help clear your head. This is likely why I tend to photograph details.
I found it important to pay attention to where things were in the frame and in relation to each other. If a piece of ice was an inch or two in either direction it could be covering up a part of a building. Or, I found that the buildings created unique framing opportunities for the floating ice chunks.
Some of the compositions made it appear that they were upside down or that I had flipped the image over. This one with the flags could potentially work if I flipped it the other way as well.
Honestly, many of these could be flipped but then I don’t think they’d appear as abstract. People looking at them wouldn’t necessarily stop and spend time trying to figure out what they are seeing.
I’m always fascinated by nature. These ice pieces breaking off into interesting shapes and how they interact with each other was mesmerizing.
Creating some of these images required patience. I waited until a piece of ice moved out of the way of what I wanted reflected in the water. Patience to watch where the ice was moving to, how it was forming new shapes and little windows of water.
When framing buildings I wanted to make sure I included those people would recognize. Even if it took them a second to figure out. This one is the iconic Wrigley building.
In the end, the ice is the star of this series in my opinion. When these semi-transparent pieces showed up I was able to use them to create reflections and it made the images seem surreal.
You can find these images in the Abstracts Gallery.
