When I get the chance to go and get wintertime landscape photography, there’s a few photos which I think of and try for.  Oftentimes, I don’t have access to a place which would give me the kinds of photos I’m dreaming of.  Occasionally, I find such a place.  Today’s photo is where I found just such a place.

One of the quintessential photos for any landscape photographer seems to be a sunset over a frozen lake.  The ice is cracked and the sun is setting/rising and giving off all kinds of warm colors to counter the cold blues of the water.  Think fire and ice.  I’ve been imagining the time when I might get that kind of a shot for myself.  I didn’t expect it would be so soon.

This winter has been very dry up until lately.  We haven’t had much in the way of snow and it’s been unusually warm to boot.  It wasn’t conditions where I thought I could get my icy lake photo.  Then the weather started changing.  It started snowing every week, even several days in a week.  The temperature plummeted back to where ice would be naturally-occurring again.

With all of this happening, I started trying to pursue some winter photography before spring comes and the snow disappears for another year.  I hate snow but it creates some beautiful landscapes for me to photograph.

While out for a project, I happened to see that the American Falls reservoir was full of ice though not completely frozen over.  I decided that I wanted to check back there during sunset to see if I could get the fire and ice type of shot I have seen so much.

When the time came, sunset was almost over.  Barely any pink light remained in the sky.  The golden oranges had faded away.  However, that did not stop me from getting my shot.

Finding the right place on the fly, with the light changing so quickly, wasn’t easy.  Thankfully, I had a high vantage point from which to try the shot.  There weren’t the leading lines in the ice which I was hoping for, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t get a great photo.  It just meant I had to adjust what kind of photo I was planning on getting.

Before the sunset faded completely, I got this shot in.  I tried for a shot from the shore but hiking down the steep slope through the mud kept me from getting there in time.  That wasn’t just wet dirt.  I accidentally got my foot straight into a bare spot of mud and sank my shoe halfway in.  That’s the kind of mud I was avoiding on that hike.  By the time I reached the shore, the sunset light faded completely.  I was glad I took this moment before starting that hike down.

The American Falls reservoir is continuing to surprise me with photos like this.  For what is often seen as a big ugly hole in the ground of a lake, I’m getting some amazing photos out of it lately.  The kinds of photos which will be permanent entries in my landscape photography portfolio.