Two Sundays ago, I took a short jaunt back to the dam – the same dam that I photographed earlier this year. One can always learn by returning to a place one has photographed before because so much has changed. With its fresh blanket of snow and sub-freezing temperatures, winter had definitely changed the feeling of this place.

The water raging out of the bottom of the dam seemed fiercer, wilder. Strange things can happen below freezing, such as the downright weird ice formations on some of the rocks in shallow water. In general, the water held uncountable photographic opportunities. Ice fragments on the surface reminded me of lily pads as they swirled above the deep blue. Heading back up the steps to leave, I snapped a photo of my footsteps in the snow on the narrow wooden stairs. Check out The Dam Ice and Snow album to see.

Then yesterday, I was experimenting (playing around) with the cutout filter in Photoshop. The cutout filter, for those who haven’t used it before, makes an image look more basic and angular, almost animated. For a time, I was satisfied with IMG1337 (I hadn’t named it yet), but I wondered what it would look like merged with my favorite christmas background, Snowy Sight.

After some more experimentation (see a pattern here?), I was pleasantly surprised with the result. This new wallpaper is more dynamic and visually interesting than the old Snowy Sight versions. The angular shapes in the background mesh well with the snowflake shapes. I call this new wallpaper Snowy Sight Iceflow, and it’s available in various sizes.

Enjoy, and Happy Festivus.

Photos from this trip are in this album. All photos in the Gallery can be used as desktop wallpapers because they are high resolution (1920×1440).