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Ellen Anon's Image
A golden winter sunrise highlighted the delicate ice crystals on Ellen’s kitchen window.
Inspired by a Freeman Patterson photograph, she spent the next six weeks photographing the ephemeral frozen patterns. ‘Sometimes the sunlight erased the designs by midday,’ she says, ‘but each morning I’d get a new surprise’. With an outdoor temperature of around -26°C, cold air seeping in through a leaky seal rapidly cooled the window pane, causing moisture in the warm indoor air to freeze onto the glass. The resulting ice crystals, known as frost ferns, nucleate around imperfections such as scratches or residual soap streaks, creating these patterns.
Behind the lens
Ellen Anon
USA
Ellen’s goal is to stimulate others to pause and appreciate the beauty and wonder of Earth. Her images are included in several collections, and have been showcased in galleries and used in numerous publications. She teaches, leads photographic and processing workshops, and is a member of the North American Nature Photography Association.
Image details
- Canon EOS 5D Mark III
- 100mm f2.8 lens
- 1/90 sec at f19 • ISO 1600
- Erie, Pennsylvania, USA
Copyright in WPY competition photographs remains the property of the respective photographers. You may not copy, share, reproduce or republish the photographs except as expressly permitted by copyright law. For media image usage enquiries, please contact us.
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