sometimes there is just a simplicity in shooting photos in black and white. when there is no color, it allows me to see the photo as it is rather than what it could be thru filters and processes. fitting, now that the photos i took on this day were all in black and white...
catching dinner was the goal for the day. we skied to the narrows behind the cabin pulling our gear in the sleds, sticking to the lake rather than cutting thru the woods. it was still cold and overcast like it had been the day before so we stuck close to the shoreline to get shelter from the cutting wind. we drilled our holes and set up the ice house on the north end of the narrows. finding our depth was like shooting a moving target in the dark. our maps did not have lake depths on them so we would need to drill our hole, drop a sinker, and measure the depth by hand. not exactly an easy task when you need to hand drill your holes thru three feet of ice...
we struck out on the first two holes we drilled, one too deep, the other too shallow. setting up in between, we sat and jigged our lines for hours, for nothing. then, just after dark, ELI reeled in a wonderful WALLEYE. our dinner had been landed. we quickly packed up, eager to get back to the cabin and cook up our catch. we were hungry...not thinking it would take this long to catch our fish, the time for dinner was long past.
the moon had not yet risen while we were heading back to the cabin so there was no glow in the clouds overhead. if there were clouds overhead, we couldn't tell. it was dark. so dark. we stopped gliding on our skis and shut off our headlamps. i couldn't see my hand in front of my face...it was like being in a cave or dark closet. there was no ambient light, no moon or stars, nothing. i waited for my eyes to adjust, and they simply did not. as we stood there motionless, the silence became deafening. i struggled to hear something, anything...and just like my eyes, my ears wouldn't adjust. it seemed like i could here the blood pumping thru my veins. ELI and i stood there in the dark and silence, our senses straining to find some form of stimulation. neither one of us wanting to break the spell that we had stopped into...
finally, one us cried out and the echo reverberated back and forth against the steep unseen shorelines along the narrow section of lake. the spell had been broken and light returned as we turned our lamps back on, gliding on our skies towards the warmth and security of the cabin...