The Kindness of Strangers...and Friends

Patrick Groleau caught Jen photographing an Ice Flower sculpture (photo cropped)...a lucky moment for Wintercraft.

One of the ways Wintercraft reaches out to the world about the wonders of playing with ice is to create Globe Ice Lanterns and other icy luminaries and put them out in places to be discovered. We light them up at paid installation events as well as guerilla-lightings along a creek or other public spaces. Regardless of the venue, occasionally a professional or hobby photographer who has captured one of our creations will miraculously come forward to offer the photos for us to use. They often state they just want to share the joy experienced. Given that I am not a photographer by talent or nature, I can tell you this is a true gift.

I can easily say that our company has been built on the kindness of strangers...and friends.

It all started when my good friend, Martha Shull Archer, stumbled upon me creating a very large installation for the City of Lakes Luminary Loppet in 2010. The organization had asked me to rethink a small area of the course that ran over a peninsula called The Enchanted Forest. I spent a month experimenting with the concept of Ice Glass and brought over about 100 large sheets of Ice Glass and 50 Globe Ice Lanterns in a variety of sizes. My goal was to arranged them along the course to look like primordial fires emerging from the frozen land. With new snow and great temperatures, all the ducks, it seemed, were lining up. I was setting the last pieces into place when Martha skied by. She told me that she had just finished a night photography course and was excited about coming back at twilight to capture all the sculptures when lit with candles.

Long story short, she came back, stayed for hours and left with hundreds of photos of my sculptures. And then she surprised us with a disk with all the images as a gift for us to use. And we have! We have used many of the photos she took that night and others she took during the Midwest Home Magazine shoot a year later. The below photo has become one of the most utilized photos for our small company. It appears on the website, on the original packaging and for many other applications. Wintercraft would not be where we are today without that wonderful push forward. Thanks Martha!

Bruce Challgren, Natasha D'Schommer, Todd Buchanan, Rob Nopola, Jennifer Simonson, Paul Umbarger, Mitch Rossow, April Asturias, Brett Norgaard, Jeremy Nelson, Mark Clingan, and Linda Nervick, are just a few of the additional wonderful photographers who have offered images for us to use. All the photos are truly appreciated and used!  Ice Photographers Gallery

Which brings me to the most recent good Samaritan, Patrick Groleau.(See the top photo). He caught me trying to photograph an Ice Flower that I had just built and lit in the Ice Castle at Loon Mountain, New Hampshire, USA. I had to crop it to fit the blog format, but I love that he not only captures the ice flower, but it shows me at work, too. Thank you so much - great photo!