OK, the answer to yesterday's challenge.
Joel was of course right. It _is_ an attractive abstract pattern. That's
what caught my eye at first. Many people guessed ice and they are
technically correct ... to a point. John and Boris were were right on
when they said it was a lake. Sorry AG, salt water never freezes around
here. The actual subject is Trout Lake which is located about 1/2
mile/1km directly through the woods from our house. The slide was dated
1979 which is the last time the lake froze deep enough and smooth enough
for skating. Usually a hard freeze here is accompanied by strong NE
winds which ripple the surface and since we don't have a zamboni skating
is out of the question. Also it usually doesn't remain cold long enough
to get 10" thick like it did in '79. That year the lake froze during
calm weather and then the Nor'easter blew in resulting in perfect
skating conditions. Except for one thing and that is all the fir cones
and other debris blown or thrown onto the ice. Anyone ever skip rocks on
a frozen lake between hills? The picture doesn't show this debris
because I cloned much of it out. It looked like the dust specks do on a
negative, i.e. white specks. The photo was taken from a bluff
overlooking the lake, perhaps 50 feet or so up. As I mentioned I used
the 135/3.5 but what I didn't mention was the polarizer. Wow! That ice
really came to life. I had intended to use the tele to take some photos
of people skating but ended up just photographing the ice surface.
Another thing about this lake is that it is the town water supply. In
this case the lake remained frozen long enough for the lake level to be
drawn down a bit. Should have heard all of the creaking and groaning! It
actually became a bit dangerous as the lake melted and the sides sloped
toward the middle.
So all you folks residing in the now frozen north should get out your
polarizer.
As for the prize winners, I've taken a hack saw to the OM3t and divided
it up as fairly as I could. The lens was tougher as there are an uneven
number of elements. Did the best I could considering the size of the
hammer. Watch your mailboxes :)
Mike
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