Nature nominee

I have spent nine-and-a-half winters capturing images of natural exterior light refracting through ice crystals that grow in winter on my old farmhouse windows. The frost grows when warm moist air escapes the house at night and comes in contact with the outer frigid glass. Window frost crystals are only a fraction of an inch thick, yet their varied crystalline structures profoundly affect the passage of light, producing strikingly colorful compositions with three-dimensional depth effects. Nature creates the artful patterns and compositions overnight, then supplies changing colors of daylight to create stunning artwork, and....then....with the new day....this ephemeral artwork melts and vanishes in the sun.

I present five images created by Nature using clear water as a medium applied to a glass substrate, then backlit with Nature’s own brilliant everchanging colors. Each image is the result of plunging temperatures and the impact that event had on the common natural element water, through the natural processes of water vapor condensation, freezing, and formation and growth of ice crystals. I have not manipulated these images except to crop/rotate, adjust tone and clean up distracting imperfections in the old glass. The colors, shapes, forms and compositions are created by Nature.

Peter has taken photographs since he was a teenager, but only much later in life turned photography into a profession. After pursuing his BSc and MSc in Earth Sciences he had a long and successful professional career as a geophysicist. Peter and his wife of 52 years shuttle between their homes in New Hampshire, USA and Meghalaya, India.

Peter is happiest anywhere quiet, capturing images of ice crystals, bugs, cracks in paint, dew drops, floating leaves or patterns in beach sand. He is currently exploring and documenting “natural art” formed without intent by natural or accidental processes.

Awards and Exhibitions: Shortlisted in Siena International Photo Awards 2025; Praxis Gallery Landscape and Open Theme Exhibitions, Jan and Feb 2025; Featured in AllAboutPhoto online magazine 1/2/2025; Finalist in 2024 Nature Photographer of the Year Award in Landscape and Portfolio categories; shortlisted in 2024 Close-up Photographer of the Year competition in Intimate Landscape and Studio Art categories; awarded six titles in Exposure One’s 2024 Photographer of the Year contest - Photographer of the Year in Nature and Photojournalism categories, People’s Choice in Portrait and Photojournalism categories, Silver in Portrait category, and Bronze in Travel category; Director’s Award in PhotoPlace Gallery’s 2024 Abstraction Exhibition.