The lake had frozen into a flawless mirror of ice, undisturbed by wind or snowfall. It is exceptionally rare to capture these conditions, which only last briefly before hoar frost starts to grow on the surface, removing the lustre.
As the ice thickens, tension builds up, pushing the ice into the edges of the lake and creating exquisite, crystal-like fractures. The formation of these fractures makes deep, otherworldly sounds. I used a high-intensity LED light to illuminate the foreground fractures crisscrossing the icy canvas. The fractures behave like optical fibres, guiding the light along their pathways. Any light that deviates from the main fissure continues its journey laterally through the ice, remaining unseen to any observer from above unless it chances upon another fracture and is redirected upwards.
As the light danced along these fractures, the scene took on an ethereal quality, reminiscent of the mysterious allure of 'The Dark Crystal,' a film from my youth. It was as if this earthly spectacle was touched by the magic of another realm.
