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I generally use a long telephoto lens for birds and animals and a macro or wide lens for ice. However, by coincidence, on one day (and the first photo here) in the game land behind Coopers Pond, in State College, I tried a long telephoto lens on some distant ice, which came out very fine. On the following few days I used my long telephoto lens for these ice photos, and I was impressed by the variety and detail of forest icicles.
The thumbnails link to large images to preserve unique ice detail. The images average in size from 60 to 125K and are 1000 pixels across, except the one verticle, which is somewhat smaller.
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Brushed icicles: It was a very cold day, and I didn't feel like walking any closer to this particular bush (which glinted beautifully in the sunlight), so I tried a long telephoto.
My alternate name for this one would have been "bushed ice," but I didn't want to go political here.
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Delicate icicles: Sun-touched areas allow the simultaneous melting and freezing of ice, which allows these more transparent varieties.
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Massed icicles: The more heavily sprayed areas of this game land have huge ice formations. However, since no one area is necessarily sprayed every day, it allows time for the ice to melt, reform, and become transparent.
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Double-strand icicles: Who doesn't enjoy huge icicles?
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Single-strand icicles: Well, it's only a single strand, but these icicles are particularly beautiful.
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Milli-icicles: Whereas some ice formations fuse together, others, such as this one, maintain a countless number of individual icicles.
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Snow icicles: Snow on top of ice forms some of the most majestic icicles.
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Horizontal and verticle icicles: Ask yourself, at first glance, does this photo seem right-side up?
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Mini-icicles: Although it is a pleasure being able to photograph icicles from a long ways away, this particular lens is also good for some intimate views, and here we also have an ice column.
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Growing icicles: Occasionally, I've seen a frost that extends a few inches beyond the source twigs, but this is the first time I've ever seen what appears to be icicles growing out of the surface of a frozen pond.
Photography note: The photos were taken with the Pentax *istD and the SMC 400-600mm lens, which is very sharp and does a fantastic job with ice.
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