Chukchi Sea Winter Morning Walk

   

winter-1The dew point is in the 70s this fine Iowa morning after a night of sirens and  what seemed like near misses for Iowa City.  Route One north of town washed out after five inches of rain fell.  Tornados are due this afternoon. I went outside into the tropical rainforest that used to be my garden to try and catch up on last month's weeding and nature just laughed a big fat nature laugh and let a little more rain pour down on us, and so I hightailed it inside to finish some seriously backlogged editing that harkens back to my favorite time of year in my favorite place.  I don't think there could be a landscape any more beautiful than a frozen sea in the light of the long slow dawn like that off the coast of Kotzebue.   I love that winter moon that scuds along the horizon.  I love that  it takes almost six hours for the light to shift from the lavender of  twilight to the true sunrise which occurs a little before noon.  I will send a crisp ten dollar bill to anyone who can find the polar bear lurking in these pictures!  A wildlife photographer I will never be--except by most unfortunate accident!  Stay cool Iowa friends.

The Light in Canada

The last three weeks have been all about water--or sky--or possibly both.  Good thing I have  good chest waders!  Moving between the still icy shores of Lake Superior and a lovely river in Ontario I find myself once again becoming hopelessly lyrical, as in these little delicacies shot when the light in Canada kept turning into an homage to Turner.  This is apparently what happens when I swear off the poetical.  Next time I'll renounce the prosaic and see what happens!