Greg Molyneux Photography

New Jersey landscape and nature photography

A frozen bay belies the weather

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An HDR sunset photograph taken from Harvey Cedars Sunset Part of a fully frozen Barnegat Bay. Unique ice patterns and strewn jetty rock mark the picture's foreground.

A frozen bay belies the weather — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

We’re wrapping up what’s easily been the coldest stretch of weather we’ve felt over the 2014–2015 Winter—and the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway has the frozen bays to prove it. Knowing the temperatures would be moderating as soon as tomorrow (can you believe it’s going to rain after this bitter cold week!?), I wanted to get over to Harvey Cedars Sunset Park to capture the not-so-common sight of an ice entombed Barnegat Bay. While the sunset color didn’t explode this afternoon, the sights I was treated to out on the point made enduring an hour of uninterrupted cold completely worth it. My mood soared immediately upon arrival; my body and mind both were in need of this photographic ice world therapy session.

For much of my time at this ephemeral Fortress of Solitude I was transfixed by the undulating, serpentine patterns of ice locked motionless from the freeze. I’m amazed at the transformation ice can bring to a summertime haven of warmth and water that I know so well. It’s nature’s way of teaching the duality of life—as well as its impermanence. And yet all I can think of is Yogi Berra opining, “you can observe a lot by watching.”

Enjoy the scene now as it will be gone tomorrow.

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Photos from the archives

Wide angle landscape photograph of phragmites and salt marsh at sunset
A dark sepia HDR photograph of a frozen wetland of the Stafford Forge Wildlife Management Area taken just before sunset
Sunset photo over late summer Dock Road salt marsh.
During a break in the weather clouds part just before sunset coloring the clouds purple and pink in this HDR photograph of the marshes of Cedar Run Dock Road.
A late evening HDR photograph taken just after sunset from Sunset Park in Surf City, New Jersey. The exposure looks out over a very calm Barnegat Bay and features the unfinished wood of the dock at the edge of the park with a small stone in the foreground.