Crooked Road To Spring

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."   Michelangelo

A couple of days ago my wife and I were outside raking leaves in the yard with no coats on.  Yesterday, I was shoveling snow from the walkway and I thought that the road to spring is a very crooked one...at least this year.  Be that as it may, I took advantage of the new fallen snow and colder temperatures to once again walk down into Ft. Defiance State Park hoping to find thin ice and clean snow.

The blog image is from the Spring Creek area and I was fascinated by the "trench" that the water had cut into the upper layer of frozen ice and snow.  I would imagine that an early melt of water traveled the path of least resistance to gradually wear a "track" in the upper crust and finally reached the creek bed.

It was early morning, which necessitated making an HDR image from multiple exposures in order to bring the lights and darks into relevence in the final image.  I used NIK HDR Efex for the process and then worked in Photoshop CS6, NIK Viveza and NIK Silver Efex for the final black and white composition.

While I spend a good deal of time and energy walking up and down the trails in this park, I find that nothing ever stays the same.  Expecting the unexpected is what keeps me returning to this area that is a multiple of many small ecosystems offering mulitples of opportunities.  It won't be long before the wildflowers begin to bloom in many differing phases depending on the species.  Until then I will continue to enjoy the crisp cold mornings offering ice patterns and frosting of fall leaves.

I wish you all a bountiful spring full of nature's beautiful offerings.  Take the time to recover from winter's cold with a walk in the parks near you.

 

Comments

[Journeyman]

Fascinating is right- thanks Dan