Steely Skies and Other Views
February is the shortest month, but it felt like the longest. Emotional, practical, challenging. But let's keep it to photography.
After a couple weeks without even touching the camera, I was finally able to get out a couple weekends in a row. In some ways it's the editing process that takes the longest, partly because I'm still learning which pictures are worth delving into it. Some are obvious deletes (probably 1/2 at least) and plenty more are unsalvageable: the composition is poor, or the exposure is wrong, or there is some other technical issue. Sometimes I keep photos just to see what I can do with them, running them through all kinds of post-processing just to see the effect. It's worth learning, but it takes time.
Likewise when I'm out in the field. I'm finding the learning process of photography to be different from anything I've ever tackled. My day job is computer programming, and there are rules. You do this, you get that. You can have total failure because you put a semi-colon in the wrong place, and if you fix that, you can have total success. But with photography...there are rules, unless there aren't rules. (queue sound of head popping)
One of the "rules" I've been trying to practice more is getting in closer. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong moment. Lately I've been enamoured with black and white snow formations. The weather has been cold but with far less snow than we usually get. This leaves a hardened crust chiselled by busy wind spirits.
I really liked the *potential* of this shot, but I took the mantra of "get in closer" too much to heart, and in this instance should have included the woods and a bit of sky in the background. Getting lower might have helped too:
The above was taken at Bird's Hill Park, my go-to when I'm short on time but need to get to a park. It was cold and windy, about -20C, but I'm really thrilled with my cold weather gear, the cold weather is the least of my worries.
A couple more from that day which I think are more successful than the above:
I'm at a loss how these strange shapes happen.
For all these black and white shots, I've been more diligent about taking the shot with that intention. In the past it's been more of an afterthought. But when I've thought about it, what catches my eye about these snow formations is the play of light and contrast, which is where black and white excels.
To bring this out in post-processing, I've made heavy use of Lightroom's "Dehaze" feature. For snow, it's the most reliable tool to accentuate contrast. But you can't overdo it, and I find I use a little bit of all the contrast tools.
The day itself was bright and blue:
Another day I headed out to Headingly, a small town attached to the Winnipeg city limits. Part of the TransCanada Trail runs through here. It was warming up a bit, about -12C, which means more interesting cloud formations. With the setting sun there were a few opportunities:
Again, I thought some shots might make good black and whites. I'll admit the contrast on this one is a bit overdone, but for giggles...
Towards sunset, half the sky was blue, half orange. This isn't the best, but it leads to the next:
Near the middle horizon is a bank of dark clouds. In summer I'd call that rain, but a quick swap of the lens to max zoom revealed a snow-shower:
Another day found me back at Old Pinawa Dam. The day started bright and sunny. Nothing really special about this shot, but it sets the scene. For these couple of shots I followed all the rules (rule of thirds), which means they're a bit boring, but pretty enough:
Of course, the river flows all year around--that's why they picked it for a dam site after all--and parts can't freeze over:
You can see the clouds coming in above. I kind of like the ice layers and the stalagmite on this next one:
But after that shot, everything went grey. The sun was still visible, but I can't really describe the glow that was cast over everything, like a steel and bronze wash:
I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it, but after testing some post-processing techniques I think I've managed to recreate it.
A week later walking around Assiniboine Park there was a similar sky, a but more muted and diffuse, and not as compelling. But still, the lower air had a clarity that let one see all the way up the river:
The last day was back at Bird's Hill. Everything was covered in fresh snow, but the temperatures were warm...almost too warm for my liking, around -5C. Again the sky was a bright and mostly featureless blue, but this time I was experimenting with a polarizing filter, and for the most part trying to take pictures at right-angles to the sun. I continue my love affair with small weeds on snow:
I found the fresh snow clinging in odd places, for instance, cupped in the needles at the end of a spruce branch:
Or plastered to the bark of an oak tree, nearly covering a cocoon of some kind:
Finally, the polarizer does an amazing job of bringing out the deep blue of the sky behind this gold-lit tree:
I'll admit it's a tad artificial, but I like the effect, and it required almost no post-processing.
That brings February to a close. The weather has turned, and is above normal for now. I'm not that happy about it, but I do look forward to spring and seeing whether I can hone my bird photography skills. It will certainly make a change from snow-scapes.
Cheers!
