A sheen of ice forms on a pool of the Stillwater Fork of the Bear River in Christmas Meadow located in the High Uintas in north eastern Utah.
Nikon Z7II | Nikkor Z f4 14-30
f 10 / 1/6 sec / iso 64
Typical post processing. In Lightroom, I raised the shadows in the water and brought down the highlights in the sky. In PShop, I added a smart sharpen filter, a TK9 color pop, and resized to 8x10.
I had seen a picture of Christmas Meadow and knew I had to go. It's a 1.5 hour drive from my house, and I got the the trail head just as the sun was starting to rise. I hiked about 20 minutes on the trail that runs on the north side of the valley. As I stepped off the trail to walk the 100 or so yards to this spot, I realized the entire valley floor was a marsh from water coming off the north side. As I squished through the cold water, I was grateful for wool socks and the cold - all the mosquitos were gone!
I got the edge of this pond and set up the shot. The sun was starting to rise over the mountains to the south, I split the exposure difference between the sunlit mountains and the shadowy pond. Enjoy!