December 2022
I am themeless! It’s been a real struggle transitioning to a winter mindset, so the shots I have this time around are kind of a smattering of this and that.
Before the snow fell, these odd cloud formations caught my eye. In the first, the stripes in the sky seemed to contrast with the lacy grass, both in colour and texture. A thinning in the clouds behind me lit up the grass in an ethereal way, and growth of the young poplars formed a nice diamond shape. It’s a really weird confluence of unrelated elements but…it was right there in front of me, so I had to try:
In this second picture, the hook in the clouds seems to mirror the curve in the road. The sun was right behind me, so I couldn’t eliminate my own shadow, but I kind of like it anyway:
The cold weather and snow arrived quickly. Just before dawn the sky was bright pink in the west, a phenomenon known as the “belt of Venus”. I was late, as usual, and scrambling for a place to pull over and find a subject to put in front of it. When I finally found one and stepped out of the car, I discovered I had vastly underestimated the temperature and wind, and was completely underdressed. I have some great winter gear, and I wasn’t using any of it. So this one is the result of frantic numb-fingered scramble to capture something — anything! — before the pink faded:
My hope is that it “looks cold”, and that the elements are at least somewhat strategically arranged.
More recently I journeyed back to Pinawa Dam, enjoying the company of my son and daughter-in-law. The first thing I found were these “snow feathers”, caused by warm air flowing over ice. This isn’t a great shot, I need to go back and get the tripod out and spend more time with it. But there’s a lot of potential for macro work:
One benefit, as opposed to summer work, is that these snow feathers don’t jiggle in the wind.
Two landscape shots from Pinawa Dam make use of the late afternoon light and the high thin clouds. These are my favourites from this collection:
The next day, on a walk through Assiniboine Forest with my sister, thick snow was falling, softening the hard lines of the forest and adding mystery:
Finally, Assiniboine Forest is a great place to walk a dog, as exemplified by this happy pup, taken in the fall:
And with that happy face I’ll bring this to a close. Hopefully I’ll create something a bit more compelling next time.
I hope you stay warm and cozy this holiday season! 🎊
Cheers!
