Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III__TS-E90mmf/2.8+2x Extender__1.5 sec at f / 19__ISO 100

On Sunday morning, I discovered these great ice patterns in my bucket of landscape pebbles.  The “bucket” is a rectangular cement mixing bucket which I bought when I was building my waterfall feature on my back patio 9 years ago.  At the time, I noticed how vivid the stones were when wet, and started an ongoing series of the wet stone details.  Last year, I sold a 5×8 foot print of one of those!  Then, in winter I’ve noticed the bucket, filled with rainwater, will freeze over on cold, clear nights.  So now I also have a collection of ice pattern images!

If you are disappointed in learning that I didn’t make this image of a natural scene, I have my misgivings too.  For various reasons however, not least of which is that I am busy “surviving” in this economy and raising two children, this is where I find the most inspiration these days – in my back yard!

This photograph was made with my 90mm TS lens plus 2x Extender, camera turned horizontally, with front tilt near max to obtain full sharp across the ice.  I created five frames using the lens’s Shift function with incremental turns from far left to far, then stitched together with PS4′s Photomerge.  Even with the five background layers flattened, the final file is over 300MB.  Not quite as big as some of my 4×5 layered master files (which can be up to 1GB), but still very high res!  One has to enlarge the image in PS, or else print it at least 24″ to fully appreciate the intricate filigree patterns in the ice.

Other Bucket images:

Stones

Stones and Reflections