Photo of the day: Ice fingers

Ice fingers, a photo by The Bacher Family on Flickr.

On January 19, after several days of storms, our snow changed to freezing rain, encasing every branch, bud, and blade of grass in a thick layer of ice. It was a dangerous cocktail, leading to broken limbs, trunks, and power lines across the region and plunging hundreds of thousands into darkness for days at a time. But it was also beautiful in a surreal way. I went out in the evening, just as the sun was setting behind the clouds, to capture some of the delicate ice sculptures on fingers of vine maple and rhododendron. This is one of my favorite images, with the frail branch reaching skyward, glistening in its crystal sheath.

Here are two others I like equally well: