I had promised my daughter we would go see The Hobbit yesterday so I convinced her to go to the first show of the day. Getting the near 3 hour movie in early was important because it was looking like the sun was going to be out and I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to get outside with the camera. A little selfish, I know, but with the snow we have been receiving I had an image in my mind I wanted to capture and the possibility it would present itself yesterday was great. Luckily, she understands my photography insanity and manages to accommodate me. 🙂

We arrived back home with an hour to spare before sunset.  I didn’t even take off my coat, just gabbed the camera and tripod and headed down the road. I have been watching the snow accumulate on this lone pine tree in the corner of a fenced in field and thought it would look best in the setting sun. I used my telephoto lens to bring the barn across the fields closer and compress the whole scene.

I had to wait 10 – 15 minutes while the sun played peek-a-boo with the clouds but eventually it lit my scene as I wanted. I’m not sure if the cars passing me while I stood on the side of the road knew what I was doing as some of the drivers gave me some interesting looks. Any of my neighbors are use to the crazy guy walking the roads and fields with his camera but the casual visitor to my neck of the woods always wonders what I’m up to.

My Winter Wonderland scene was exactly what I wanted to capture. I made a few adjustments in Lightroom 4 then processed the image with Topaz Labs’ Adjust 5. I used the plugin to bring out some additional detail in the snow and grass.  I tried not to over-process the image but I did want just a little extra punch in it.

Winter Wonderland
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/25s, 55mm, f/18, ISO 200