Hokkaido Biei — Blue Pond Winter Ice
1,099.00 د.إ
The Biei Blue Pond in Hokkaido during winter freeze — the aluminium-silicate-coloured water stilled to turquoise ice, birch trees standing in the frozen shallows, a light snowfall dusting their bare branches in white.
Description
The Biei Blue Pond’s turquoise colour is caused by naturally occurring aluminium hydroxide particles suspended in spring water that flows from the volcanic Tokachi-dake mountain — a natural colloidal suspension that scatters blue wavelengths. In winter, the pond surface freezes while retaining the colour beneath, creating an ice surface with the blue-green tint visible through the clear ice in shallow areas. The submerged dead birch trunks — trees that died when the pond was created by flood control construction — stand as sculptural bare forms in the winter landscape, their branches dusted by the light snow of the January photograph. Shot at f/11 on a 24-70mm zoom, the cold flat winter light creates even illumination without harsh shadows on the white snow and ice surface, communicating the quiet stillness of the Hokkaido winter landscape.
