Ice Shards 001

Between Two Harbors and Duluth there is still lots of solid ice. North of Two Harbors to the Canadian border blue green shards dot the shoreline in patches like these.

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Ice Shards 002

Travis Novitsky and I photographed a large mass of shards northeast of Grand Marais.

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Ice Shards 003

Lake Superior’s ice is extremely clear and dense causing the edges to look blue-green. Similar to water, dense ice absorbs the red and yellow light leaving blue light behind to give that blue-green appearance.

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Ice Shards 004

The shards have been worn smooth by the high winds over the last two weeks.

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Ice Shards 005

Broken shards take on many different shapes.

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Ice Shards 006

It is amazing how the wind and waves can pile up so much ice.

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Ice Shards 007

This shard shows just how clear Lake Superior’s water is.

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Ice Shards 008

Taking the picture from a different angle refracts the light making the cloud look more like an abstract bird in flight.

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Ice Shards 009

Sunset on the ice shards. The shard on the right looks like a dolphin coming out of the water.

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Split Rock Lighthouse State Park

I also photographed some of the shards below Split Rock Lighthouse. The one on top is worn so smooth by the wind that it looks like liquid metal.

Winter can be a beautiful season to photograph the North Shore.

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