Snow storms don’t do it for me, as far as winter photography goes. It just seems there’s a major lack of contrast and everything’s, well, white. But, an ice storm, that’s something different.
We had a bit of a major freezing rain storm at the start of January, 2020 in Central Ontario. I tried to get out and capture the aftermath. There’s just something about the landscape glistening with a coating of ice.
I tripped out to Pine River Provincial Fishing Area, near Shelburne, Ontario, in hopes of capturing a sunset to go with the ice. It didn’t work out that way but I was happy just getting out and breathing some fresh air.
More on this short, late afternoon trip below the video and image gallery.
Pine River Provincial Fishing Area Ice Storm Video
This video was taken that afternoon at Pine River Provincial Fishing Area. All clips were shot using the new Canon 50mm f1.8 prime lens.
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Pine River Provincial Fishing Area Ice Storm Image Gallery
For full-size versions of the photos in the image gallery, simply click on the individual pictures. For high resolution versions, see below.
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Early January, when daylight is at a major premium. It was just a short window of time between when the kids got off school and when the sun went down. Add to that, an overcast sky that really wasn’t supposed to be there.
Pine River is about a 30 minute drive from my house. The parking lots were somewhat plowed. After driving for over 30 years and never before seeing the need for winter tires, I was amazed at the new-to-us Honda Civic with winter rubber attached. I had no problems scooting into this sort of remote spot (in a cell phone dead zone) where there obvious signs that others had had issues.
Really, it was just another chance to play with the Canon 50mm f1.8 prime lens that found its way to me on Christmas morning. It’s the kind of lens that can make a middle of the road quality camera climb a rung on the ladder.
With the lighting, everything I shot was bracketed and it certainly shows through in the image gallery. The busy beaver was in the middle of changing the landscape and that brought a different view of this spot that I’d photographed many times before.
Originally, the beaver dam was about 100 feet or so upstream. It was quite a feat of architecture and even provided a makeshift waterfall. However, the MNR came and blew it up. Construction has now begun almost at where the river meets the dammed up area and where the ATV boys cross the water for the trails on the other side.
Interestingly, the ice wasn’t so thick on the trees here. I guess, being in a river valley might have changed the temperature enough to turn the precipitation more to either rain or snow. Just a few kilometres back south, the trees and hydro lines were heavy with a thick coating.
This remains a bit of an underrated and underused location close to the Greater Toronto Area. The Bruce Trail runs through it and there is some spectacular forest scenery to be photographed. But, the area around the dam has a pretty awful odour year round and there are no facilities other than a roughed in gravel parking lot. Just perfect, in my mind…
