The Daily Photoist: saul skiing on the beach

Each weekday morning, we pick a recent image from the Torontoist Flickr Pool and feature it here on the site. It's our way to give the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve!

In case you hadn't noticed, there's a lot of winter outside your window. For some of us, this means hibernating inside and living vicariously through the internet.

Torontoist Flickr group member syncros (Frank) decided instead to grab his camera and head down to Ashbridges Bay where he took this excellent portrait of a cross-country skier.

The strange colouring and almost 3-D effect found in this photo are both due to the process used -- this is a digital infrared image. What amazes us about this technique is the way it very much evokes a sense of winter cold. As though the subject is frozen in place, like a solid block of ice. (Apparently, the skier's beard actually was completely frozen over with ice crystals.)

syncros has a whole set of winter infrared images that share the surreal character of the photo above. They're worth a visit.