Abstract Ice Take 2 & my first photography accident

star light star bright

   In continuation of my bi-weekly photography project, I headed back up to Echo Lake to shoot more abstract ice.  I was hoping with the cold weather we've recently had the lake would be more stable and I would be able to venture a little further out toward the deeper sections.  Last time I was up there was towards the later afternoon which meant I had to deal with shadows caused by the setting sun.  This time the plan was to be at the by the late morning.  
   A couple of things make shooting ice very addicting.  1) You can shoot in harsh light, which means you don't have to get out of bed super early to catch the golden light.  2) No matter how many times you shoot one location, you'll almost always find new and interesting formations.  3) You honestly don't need to carry a ton of gear.  All these shots were with the Nikon 24-70 2.8 lens mounted on a D700.  But honestly, with all the light available a "fast" lens isn't really necessary.  Actually, a DX format camera might work better because of the magnification factor.

the matrix

   I know by now everyone is wondering about the accident.  Well, we are talking about ice here right.  My previous outing I was very comfortable on the ice in just my boots.  It was a bit different this time mostly because of the wind.  It was howling at time.  So much so that I put down my backpack once and the wind blew it approximately 50 yards from me. Anyway, back to the event.  I was slowly and carefully walking around looking for interesting patterns, a gust of wind caught me (probably around 40-50 mph) and pretty much blew me off my feet.  As you can imagine I had my camera mounted on the tripod, when I fell backwards the whiplash caused the camera to nail me directly above my left eye.  Yes, I was in a good amount of pain.  First I checked my eye brow to make sure I wasn't bleeding, I wasn't.  Next was the check the camera hoping it would be okay.  Luckily it was.  So I learned when shooting on slippery surfaces crampons are a must, no matter how comfortable you feel always veer to the side of caution and for me the first photography helmet might not be a bad idea.

the galaxy