Return to La Banquise

The winter season provides many advantages for the walker who loves open spaces. One of them is the pack ice (la banquise in French) that forms along the Saint Lawrence River. This is a wide angle view looking downriver and downwind towards Québec City.


I also like isolating close-up elements. Shards of ice are forced into infinite shapes by the river's tides and current. I took this picture lying down to remove the horizon and highlight the ice formation.

Water on Ice

A small stream thawed earlier this week. Temperatures plunge to -25 degrees Celsius refreezing most of the surface. The volume of water is so great it overflows the ice creating mini falls and ice ridges. The sun's slanting light adds a touch of warmth to the cold mix.

Winter Rainbow

After a three-hour snowshoe to a lookout atop the Pic Champlain (Parc du Bic) we returned to Anse à Mercier near sunset. My friends went indoors to drink beer and eat chips. I hung around with my Pentax and this is what I framed looking northwest across the St. Lawrence to the hills of Charlevoix . I love the bands of colour from cool blue to warm orange that emerged just as the sun set. The only downside was that the chips were all gone by the time I joined the group!

In Celebration of Winter

Photolife selected this picture to appear in the December/January 2010 edition of their magazine. Back in March 2009, they challenged readers to go outside and shoot winter in creative ways. I took this picture, La Banquise, on Febraury 26 while snowshoeing with a group of friends along the pack ice of the St. Lawrence River not far from Quebec City. The light was soft and otherworldly. I liked the simple lines; it seemed to me it could it could have been taken anywhere in Canada, including the Arctic.

I started this blog to share my growing interest in photography. I'll be posting more photos in the future. I hope you will enjoy some of them and respond in turn with your favourite photographs and comments.

Andrew