Icefall

I have several houses that I had made just for the flower show that have not been photographed outdoors yet. One in particular was on my mind as needing to be done soon as the white world of winter has all but disappeared from here. I knew I was going to have to go up into the mountains to try and find a reasonable location as the house had a festive holiday type look with red berries and tiny Hemlock cones and it needed to look like it was in a wintry setting.

So I put camera and house and winter clothes in the car and headed up to find a location. This is not how I usually work but the season was past and I needed to improvise.

Along the road I found a stunningly beautiful icefall that was receiving the late afternoon sun. Water was pouring off the ice. It was spectacular. And dangerous to get near... the footing was rotten... I slipped thru once and my entire leg was swallowed up (good thing I had my waders on ) and with this amount of melt the ice could come loose from the cliff at any moment. But the beauty of it !!! It lured me in...

so.. this is the result... I'm not sure if this house actually looks its best here. But I knew we were in for 2 days of rain and the icefall may not be there when the sun returns for more photos... so this is what I have for now.

It is an odd feeling creating a house and then trying to find the right location.. I usually start with the location and build something to try and harmonize with the environment... so it is good to try something different from time to time. This house has a lot of lovely details that are not shown to best advantage here, but at least there is a wintery feeling.

I photographed many other areas of the icefall... it was such a lovely sculpture in and of itself.