Birefringent Lake Ice

As spring draws near, ice becomes less frequent on the bodies of water. I photographed this quarter-sized piece of lake ice using crossed polarization. Because of its non-uniform internal structure, light entering it splits into two rays (double refraction), resulting in vibrant interference patterns. For this photographer, it was a perfect combination of two of my favorite subjects—light and ice.

Nikon D7000 with 105mm polarized

Raw file editing in Adobe