It’s been snowing nicely the past days and SMHI just confirmed that winter has indeed arrived. Seems like it’s arrived in the rest of Europe as well, read in the news that snowfall is causing havoc in traffic in many countries. Me, I’m just happy to be still be able to drive in the forest roads. The car is scraping the snow but it’s not a problem as long as it’s soft and fluffy like it is now. Have to enjoy it while it lasts because most of the forests roads won’t get plowed so they’ll be unpassable when we get more snow.
When I arrived at my first location, I got a lucky break and it started snowing again. Proof that I’m out of practice with snowfall photography – I started setting up the tripod when I remembered that the only way to catch the flakes is to use a fast shutter speed… so I walked up and down the shore, happily snapping away and grateful that I was at the right place at the right time. Intense snowfall like this normally doesn’t last long and it’s difficult to plan for it.
My second location was a creek that I had seen from the road earlier in the autumn when I drove past (without stopping). It seemed to have a lot of potential so I was expecting a smorgasbord of photo ops but reality turned out to be anything but – the ops were few and far between and not really very good and I had to work very had to get to them. The creek was lined with trees and even when I did find a somewhat open view, there was always some stray branch blocking a critical element in the composition. Sometimes the forest was so dense that I had to walk back to the road until I found a new opening and could access the creek again, all the while being careful about where I put my foot because these forests are treacherous in the best of conditions, let alone when all the rocks and crevices are covered with snow. I’d be lying though if I said I didn’t enjoy it – even with the snow falling off the trees on my head and neck and my mittens getting soaking wet. The thing is that somehow I haven’t been quite as happy as I expected to be for the snow, I was starting to think that maybe I don’t like winter anymore as much as I used to. Well, after today’s experience, there are no such worries. Snow makes everything beautiful – snow is beautiful! More, please!