Photo of the Week 2013-02-18

On changing things up ...

What has been my "normal" weekend photo outing for some time is a morning with one, sometimes two and on the odd occasion a few photographer friends. It's usually an early start to catch the "good light". Planning starts sometime during the week with an email and some friendly photography related banter.

This week, things didn't come together as they usually do. One friend was out because of other commitments and my regular companion had some things pressing only leaving him time for a quick walkabout somewhere close. Feeling the need to get out and lose myself in nature and the process of my photography, I decided to head out alone for a few hours. I picked a section of the Bruce Trail that I had not hiked before and just started walking, with a backpack full of camera gear in case I came across something special.

Walking along on the outbound leg of the hike, I stopped periodically to just take it all in and soak up the sights, sounds and solitude and made a few exposures of things that caught my eye. After some time, I came up to a marker for a side trail, looked at my trail map, saw it was a dead end trail near the escarpment edge and decided to check it out. At the end of the side trail I decided to take off my backpack and work at capturing some of the forest scene. When I was done I found a spot on the rock outcrop at the escarpment edge to sit, rest a bit and grab a drink of water. After several minutes I looked at my watch and saw that I had been out for well over 2 hours so I decided to make my way back.

As I started the return leg, what had been the odd snowflake turned to a much heavier snowfall. One of the interpretive signs I had stopped to clean off and read not long ago was already covered with the freshly fallen snow. The snowfall continued to increase and the scenes I had passed by before were completely transformed. A surreal atmosphere had descended on the forest and my opportunity to make some images had arrived.

Forest Flurries 03

The effect of shooting through falling snow across an open space is quite unique. Some may comment that it gives a photograph a painterly feel, others that it obscures detail. For me it's a magical time when the woods sing.

Forest Flurries 02

Forest Flurries 04

Forest Flurries 01

All in all, it was a great morning. I hiked a 5km section of the Bruce Trail that I'd never seen before, got lost in my thoughts and photography for a few hours and came back with some images that I'm very happy with.

I think I'll change it up a little more often.

  DJE