Ice Art

[IPT]

So...made the annual pilgramage to Fairbanks AK for the Ice Art competition. This was a pretty good year. Ironically the had a lot of fish and ocean stuff. The drive was a bit of a hassle. It's about 350 miles or something like that and we had everything from 6 inches of fresh snow on the road, ice, dry pavement, and total white outs from flying snow of cars ahead or passing in the other direction. On the way we stopped in Denali National PArk and did a nice three hour X-country ski. Sadly no wildlife sightings...though the Ranger showed us some pics of a Lynx that passed by the visitor center just the morning before. For a change it was actually warm up there, like 20 degrees above zero!! Oh the joy. Don't mind the "snapshots"...

the night of the final judging Ice Art

yours truely - don't mind the bed head...we camped in the truck the night before...uh, no running water. In fact our water was frozen solid.

nice car eh?

the little woman

 

[IPT]

honestly officer...I was driving a reasonable speed for the conditions....

the detail!!!

 

[Brett9917]

Wow, that is some absolutely stunning work!! Good job on capturing the art too. Was it difficult to work with the ice and the lighting??

 

[swjim]

Great shots! Were you using gelled flashes or was all of the lighting from the exhibits?

 

[Recty]

Those are very nice, Louis. The one with the lionfish is great.

 

[IPT]

Great shots! Were you using gelled flashes or was all of the lighting from the exhibits?

No flash was used. They use lights to light the pieces and often they use some colored filters over them.

Was it difficult to work with the ice and the lighting??

Not really the ice, just dressed warm. This was the first time I've been there that the snow was blowing. Had to pay attention to how I held the camera so snow didn;t get on the lens. Sometimes the light was a challenge trying to not blowout highlights. In some cases it is all but impossible with bright lights right behind the pieces. I don't even remember if I did it on these but all the shots were bracketed so sometimesI maunually do some HDR work and merge exposures.

 

[PSam]

Great photos. The detail on their carvings is amazing also.

 

[ducklabdad]

Fantastic shots thanks so much for sharing those with all of us. It is amazing what some can do with a chunk of ice!!

 

[IPT]

totally amazing what they do!!