Ice Fire: Accidental Psychedelic Explosion

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head
Feed your head
~Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit


Well, it's the depths of January, and we're vortexing right here and now in the good ol' U.S. of A. Sunday would bring us a couple of inches of fresh snow, followed by a precipitous drop in temperatures in central Pennsylvania. It's going to be a cold week. Everybody put on your warmies and be prepared!

"Fetch me that pitcher, Farm Boy," a young woman once said in a very good film. But at our house, it's "Bring me some ice, Husband!" Yes, that's how we start the day. :-) And so my husband - who knows the strange things that make me happy, and humors me - did bring in some fresh ice from the yard (his reply: "As you wish"), and I had a fine time playing with that ice on the bathroom sink.

I remembered the other night that I had a little stand downstairs (just a few inches wide, deep, and tall) that had LED lights shining from beneath it, that you're supposed to display a crystal on. But I decided it was time to use it for one of my ice abstract photo shoots. I got the little light stand out and my husband put batteries in it. And so here we are, having quite a photographic adventure with the ice!

The LED lights cycle through a set of colors, including blue and yellow and red and purple, often with several different colors being displayed at once. I also added my mom's colorful beads underneath. You don't get to see MUCH of the beads with the whole light show going on, but I could still tell they were there. At one point, I thought we were looking straight into the fires of Mordor. The whole thing was mesmerizing, almost over-stimulating: an accidental psychedelic explosion.

I find that the best ice for this sort of thing is the type that's freshly, and incompletely, frozen. If it has water glurking around inside it, all the better. Dump out the water, and turn that ice upside-down. Are there crystals there? YOU BET THERE ARE. GO GET THE CAMERA. Find a light to somehow place underneath it. Turn off the overhead lights. Pick the saturated setting on the camera. Get up close and personal with the ice. Take a bunch of pictures. Now, THAT'S what I'm talking about!

I would also caution those of you who may want to play with ice for personal amusement to be careful when picking it up, especially as it starts to melt and fall apart, because some of the edges can be mighty sharp. The ice has not drawn first blood yet this winter. Let's keep it that way. Play safe, pilgrim.

I could point out that you might have seen snow photos here, but I had a double calamity on my morning walk, photo-wise. My husband went for a jog up Tow Hill, and I followed, with camera. The battery in the camera was the one that goes straight to flashing orange, with no warning whatsoever. And then it's done. "HELP HELP! GAHHHHhhhhh!" End of battery. 

And guess what: for the first time ever, I had NO extra battery in my camera bag. Double indemnity. You're done, sistah! I tried to snap a few more photos but I was thwarted. Flash flash flash. Done done done. End of story. 

So here is your cold-weather warning, which I should heed myself: before you go out on any photo quest that matters to you on a frigid day, CHECK YOUR BATTERY AND MEMORY CARD. End of public service announcement. Ah, I bet the ice was more fun, anyway.

My soundtrack song for a psychedelic explosion is Jefferson Airplane, with White Rabbit.