Deep Freeze

Colorado CR 69 and CR 96

When I show this image to people and ask them "Take a guess what you are looking at?" I usually get some interesting comments. Most of them think this might be a microscope photo of a virus or of bacteria. Some people even think they are looking into deep space. But they are all wrong: I actually took this image at a mountain lake in Colorado near our home. We had gone for a hike and took a break along the shore of a small alpine lake at around 9,500 ft elevation. The lake was completely covered with ice and when I took a closer look through my macro lens I saw these incredible formations of frozen air bubbles, trapped and suspended in the crystal clear ice.