Ice Skaters
By: pbcmedia
Tags: Disappearing World, February, Ice Skaters, nature, Photography, Ponds, Timeless
Category: anxiety, Photography, Seasons
| Aperture: | f/22 |
|---|---|
| Focal Length: | 16mm |
| ISO: | 500 |
| Camera: | Canon EOS 5D |
I’ve been in my “Timeless” gear ever since Tipota suggested it in a blog comment. I find her phrases keep on turning in my mind long after they are written.
Nothing captures “Timeless” for me like ice skaters on a large pond, be they human or canine.
Add to that a February thaw that makes the ice look ominously like water and threatening skies that match the muddied ice and melting snow and I’ve got me some timeless with a capital T.
The figures are like ghosts to me. Could be from any age, years past or years in the future, with the illusion of being present. But, are they? If I blinked, would the pond swallow them? Or, the sky exhume them?
There shall always be days like this.
It is timeless alright. And, oddly, unsettling.
I don’t think the latter is what Tipota had in mind.
©Pat Coakley 2009
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16 comments on “Ice Skaters”
Leave a reply to Donald Diddams Cancel reply
Don't Text While Using Your Camera
Single for a Reason® 
Did you draw watercolour figures on that landscape? Or it’s just a Photoshop layer? Love the ethereal quality here–like they’re disappearing or perhaps just traces of a past event. Most lovely. :)
No, Nan, I did not draw them. They were on the ice but I put them on a layer so I could move them slightly to appear both more ethereal and disappearing. If you could see me draw, you would have gone direct to the layer explanation!! Thanks for visiting and taking the time to comment!
yes ha ha there are times when the timeless is in fact unsettling but it doesn’t change time at all. no, time could care less, maybe that’s why it is unsettling. again if there is no time but now it would be a different way of thinking/being than the way we think of it as linear. again it means every moment of every now is just what it is, even while some time’s unsettling. um did i just say that? um no, i think it was someone else. now, that’s unsettling ha ha.
What an amazingly beautiful photograph. There is no up or down, infinite. Tipota’s words echo in my mind too. She is a truely incredible writer and artist.
I can’t think of an image that has ever had the effect of coaxing my eyes in the way that this does. Yes, there is definitely something of the eternal in ice.
This is dreamlike. The little people and the dog remind me of those figurines you see in architectural models. That huge sky just makes them seem even smaller. Wonderful juxtaposition of elements and textures. I love it.
Yes, Tipota, you get me head going in all sorts of directions and then I laugh, which is another one of your gifts!
Paul, Thanks for visiting and couldn’t agree with you more about Miss Tipota Gem. Out of another world she comes and shows us things!
Brad, A wide angle lens has that effect you mention when focused on the sky. This is my most used lens probably for the reason you mention! Thanks for commenting.
Epic! Let me provide the dream photograph and you the dream meal and we’ll invite friends, OK? My pork with pears was how shall I say….? A tad chewy and flavorless!
Great image! Those skaters are not only ghostly, they provide some ambiguity of scale that is very interesting when combined with the reflections and wide angle sky.
I love that.. makes them look magical :)
I like the landscape but I think the transparency of the people makes the shot look obviously manipulated in a way where I just thought, “oh those people have just been put in there, in Photoshop” without thinking any further about the shot. As I’ve remarked before, I prefer to see photographs (which by the very nature of the medium imply reality) without obvious signs of manipulation.
razz, I think I need to do a better job of placement. I see what you mean and in general don’t like the obvious either.
Sorry, I got pulled away from comments by a three year old!
Amber girl, you have more damn names for yourself!! I’m going to give some thought to sprucing up my identity.
Don, I also like the perspective mixed signal but I think I agree with Razz that I’ve got to work on them a bit more to get a better balance between reality and mystery.
I just have to chime back in here in response to razzbuffnik’s comment. As a photo-manipulator, I certainly don’t mind an image that has been worked over, as long as it works. In fact, given the ubiquity of digital photography, I assume every photo has been “post-processed” to some degeree or another, sometimes to good effect and sometimes not. Reality? What is that? It certainly no longer exists in photogrraphy any more than in the evening news.
Now, on the placement of the figures (or perhaps their size)… I agree some adjustment there might improve the image and its effect. Still a great image with great potential.
Pat, this is just Wow!
Don, Razz can easily respond on his own, but what I take away from his point is that sometimes when you know what can be done, as you do, as he does, as I do, you expect more seamlessness in execution. I just pulled the trigger a bit too early on this one but this discussion will ultimately make it better! But, I do believe it’s worth the tinkering (aka manipulatin’).
Oh, Russ, I’m still laughing at you the wow running man! Seriously, such a skilled goofball!
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