Frozen Lake Erie Last year, winter in the Buffalo Niagara region was not exactly what Buffalo is known for. Snowfall was on the light side and there were just a few cold days. Definitely not enough for the Lake Erie to freeze solid, and not really even along the shore. So instead of enjoying arctic-like scenes like the one on the left I was left with photos from the year before.

As such, I was that much more excited when this winter seemed to promise more. Right from December, more snow came down and temperatures were encouragingly lower. Even so, Lake Erie was adamantly remaining warmer than average and stayed well above the freezing point. And each time it got close, a warm up came, melted snow and ice away, and gave the lake an extra degree or two.

Week by week, the lake got closer and closer though and then finally started slowly freezing from the west. Even now, it's nowhere close to being fully frozen and its east side is open water for the most part, but there was enough cold weather to allow the still water behind the break wall around Buffalo's waterfront to freeze. Having seen the cool down / warm up pattern of this winter I wanted to get on the lake soon before it would melt on me again.

I decided to head to the Gallagher Pier. On my last visit there I photographed the sunset aligned with the direction of the pier and liked the ice that was building up under the pier  However, my focus was different and I never got a chance to get under the pier and capture the winter mood before it got too dark. This time around I arrived before sunrise on a cloudy day with no intentions of paying attention to the sun. In fact I was hoping it would stay exactly as forecast and as it was when I arrived - a thick layer of winter clouds not giving any clues whether one was looking east or west. I was hoping this diffused light would reflect off of the ice below the pier and light up the normally shadowed area.

Gallagher Pier in Ice And here you can see what I got! Elements came together and I got my chance to photograph not only the pier from underneath but to photograph it with a clear signature of winter, with the pier posts buried in the ice.

At first, I was not a fan of the broken branch laying on the ice and disrupting the symmetry of the scene. I even tried to get close and move it out of the way with another branch but the ice was not stable enough to support me and the soles of my shoes were quickly in water with suspicious cracking sounds sending be back as quickly as I moved in. As I backed away and lowered my tripod as low as it would go and framed this scene, I thought it was good that the wood would not move being frozen into the ice. The way it laid there by one of the posts was subtly, yet resolutely breaking the otherwise strong symmetry. I still think that worked to the benefit of this photo. What do you think?

I have also chosen to present this photo in black and white to preserve the clean winter look and its cold, and highlight the wood textures of the pier supports. You can find more of my black and white photography in my World without Color collection.

And yes, a few days later a warm front rolled in and made the white winter look go away again. This time it makes me wonder, will it still come back or are we going to have to wait another year?

Have fun whatever season it is you like the most!