Feb. 13

Congratulations to Patrick Flanigan of Lexington, Ky., who captured this week’s top-rated image in the It’s A Snap travel photo contest. His image shows the beauty that can be found in the aftermath of an ice storm.

Flanigan said that when the ice storm hit Kentucky at the end of January, there were several days of gray weather. “Almost all photos that were taken by anyone, including myself, were tonally gray and white.” He also noted that most of the pictures were bleak, depicting things such as tree damage and power failures. “I wanted to show the incredible beauty of ice storms,” Flanigan said.

While returning home from work one day, Flanigan decided to take the country roads to look at the damage and splendor of the ice. That’s when he noticed that the clouds were trying to break and the setting sun was beginning to appear for the first time after the storm.

“Some spots in the clouds were already turning orange, and that color was bouncing off the ice everywhere, just amplifying the beauty,” he said.

He pulled his car off the road at the entrance to a horse farm. Flanigan was standing behind a fence when the sun peeked out and lit up the scene with brilliant red and orange hues.

“The most captivating aspect of the scene was the color being reflected in every single icicle,” Flanigan said. “It was certainly the icing on the cake.”