It was a gorgeous sunny day, but it was crispy and cold too. The trees on the flanks of these Cascade Mountains are covered in frost and light snow, but the late afternoon sun shone gloriously on the mountain tops! This end of the lake is free of ice because the sun reaches it enough hours of the day to mellt it, but the south end of Gold Creek Pond is covered in thick ice already.
This is a tripod shot, 0.6 second exposure at f/20, 11.5mm using the Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 wonder. I took two shots and merged them in Photomatix Pro 5 so I could pull the frosted trees out of the shaded areas on the flank of the mountian.
Gold Creek pond is a man-made pond that resulted when gravel was mined from the area during the construction of I-90 nearby. After mining was complete the area was tidied up and turned into a nature park. It is a little gem of a place to visit year round.
© 2014 Brian Xavier
Photo taken: Saturday, January 4, 2014
Do not use my photos on websites, blogs, or in any other media format without my explicit permission.
