Leaning Birch Above a Frozen Ontario Lake | Winter Photography
Warm Morning Light Along a Snow-Covered Shore
I was standing on a frozen lake near my Northern Ontario studio when the newly risen sun reached this birch. The air was cold, but the light along its pale branches was warm. Below the tree, untouched snow spread across the lake in a smooth, almost unbroken surface.
The birch leans out from the shoreline and opens into a wide network of bare limbs. Some branches stretch low over the snow, while the upper ones climb into a clear blue sky. Their irregular lines give the tree a distinctive shape. The darker woodland behind it provides enough contrast to make the pale bark easy to follow.
This colour photograph holds two very different impressions of winter together. There is the cool blue of the open sky and the whiteness of the frozen lake, but also the gold and brown tones where morning light reaches the trees. I was interested in that warmth within a scene that otherwise feels spare and cold.
Keeping the smooth lake surface beneath the busy branches gives the composition a quiet lower edge. Nothing in the snow competes with the tree, and the vertical frame leaves room for its height as well as its leaning form. For me, the photograph recalls the stillness of that winter morning close to home: a familiar shoreline changed by snow, and a single birch made prominent by the first light.
© Dan Kosmayer, 2013
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About My Fine Art Photography
Every photograph in my collection comes from my own travels, explorations, and years behind the camera.
I create my work as photographic art rather than mass-produced decoration. From street portraits and abandoned places to landscapes, architecture, and the unusual subjects I discover along the way, each image begins with something that made me stop and look.
My photographs are available in multiple sizes so the same image can work in anything from an intimate wall space to a large statement installation.
