"A Winter's Sketch"

Over the recent years, my love for photographing the winter landscape has grown immensely. In my earlier days, the only thing that flipped my switch was fall foliage. Then I learned to appreciate spring wildflower season. It is right up there with autumn shooting, if not surpassing it. In the last few years, I have been working on filling out my portfolio so I can get into more calendars, perhaps having my own featured soon. In order for that to happen, you have to have all the seasons. Even though I have spent a fair amount of time in the snow, at one time even camping in it, I have never been fond of getting out in it. That has definitely changed in the last two winter seasons. It is slowly becoming my favorite time to shoot, especially when the conditions are prime. The conditions on Sunday morning passed were just so; lots of snow with no breeze. I was running around like a child at play. The colder temps did not even cross my mind. I was exuberantly shooting all the possible compositions and when the light finally peaked through, my jaw was hanging low. Before the clouds broke, however, there were many fantasy like settings. Then is a good time to experiment. For this scene, I envisioned the final image consisting of only white and light brown, similar to a colored pencil sketch. Indeed, it is just like the moment I encountered, so I am happy with the results. For a quick tip; these scenes will be underexposed if you follow the guidance of the light meter. I opened up three to four stops passed the suggested in camera settings to bring out the white. Thanks for your time!

Thanks for any feedback or discussion. The Larger view is recommended,

as usual!

Can't figure out the low ratings.  Me, digging those sticks coming out of a pristine field of fresh snow. Hard to believe this is a color shot. So much white in one shot. Sloping hillsides with barren trees makes this feel like winter.  Keep shooting and I'll keep on a looking...Lefty

it seems you have the same problems with low ratings! lots of bad ratings from people who are nowhere near to this level :)))

back to the picture: for me the best of these series is "winter, spring, winter...", this one is not that obvious but still very good. i was also very surprised that in winter scenes a +2 overexposure doesn't cause blown highlight, but excellent shadow details. in practice, snowy scenes have much less dynamic latitude than normal scenes, and is very pleasant that the sky usually is darker than the foreground. you succeeded here very well the graphic effect and the tones are impressive. very good photo.

This one really works for me, Mark. I love the snow stuck on the trees. The FG grasses and bare trees really sing.