February 8

.

On the 8th it was warm enough that there were puddles, and yet cold enough that the bottom of the puddles had interesting ice crystals (or, maybe, the crystals were gone, but they left traces?).

See all those pale (straight-ish) lines?

Puddle pictures are difficult.  My eyes see *either* the trees reflected by the top surface of the water, *or* the pale lines on the sidewalk resulting from (formerly?) frozen water.

The camera sees both equally.  If I want to capture the reflection of the trees, I am annoyed by distraction of the bottom of the puddle, and if I want to capture the bottom of the puddle, I'm annoyed by the distraction of the trees.....




Here an added complication is the sawed off sidewalk (bottom part of the image), exposing the pebbles in the concrete.....

This one was focused on the trees -- the pale long(ish) spiky-looking things on the bottom were not in focus.  I messed with the pic to try to get a more clear image.  All of the straight-line paler stuff is, I believe, a result of ice on the bottom of the puddle.

Here's another attempt..........

I don't totally hate the combination of the pale stuff with the reflection of the trees.  I might even like it, a little?  As an abstract image?  I can't make up my mind...........

This image has a third aspect -- I believe the top surface of the puddle was on the way to freezing.  There are places where you can just see the distortion that I think is caused by the surface thinking about freezing.  They look sort of floral to me, with distinct centers and petal-like lines going out from the centers.  There's one with a rust-colored center, not far from the left edge, just above the middle.  There are two more near the right edge, one just above, and one below the middle.


This is a close crop of the one near the left edge.  See the way the thinner dark diagonal tree reflection is distorted (thinner) near that orangey spot?  I don't know if this makes it easier to see what I'm talking about or not.....

Lots going on here.  Not my usual minimalist aesthetic.........

.