Category Archives: snow
Calendar Contest Update
I received some good news today via email. One of my pictures entered in the photo contest for the Mohawk Valley 2013 calendar was selected by the readers. The picture below will be for the month of February. The calendar comes out on January 1st in the Observer-Dispatch paper.
This particular image was taken during lunch back on March 1st for an event on Google+. I ended up not using this image for the event and tried some not normal processing on it. I was very happy with the result because I felt it had a post card feel to it and I was able to keep the falling snow visible.
It is not my most favorite image but I thought it represented the Mohawk Valley which is what I thought the intent of the contest was. Based on the other images in the competition it was more for photographers from the Mohawk Valley. Anyway, I was happy to have two images selected for the competition and I’m thrilled to have one actually be in the calendar.
Day 85
I was determined not to miss the morning sun today. We ended up getting a dusting of snow last night after the freezing rain stopped. There really wasn’t enough to worry about but I view it as exercise so I shoveled the driveway. Actually I pushed the snow from one side to the other with my 4 foot pusher shovel. Hey, I was out at 7am walking back and forth which is exercise, right?
The sky was full of clouds when I started but as I finished up you could see the sun start to work its way through. My plan was working. I grabbed the camera and went for a short walk. I managed to get quite a few nice pictures and even captured a bracketed set to show off the colors in the sky. The picture I liked for my project was a macro of the property marker on the corner of our yard. It is just a rusted piece of rebar but I like the texture and color against the sky.
We are heading down to my wife’s family farm today to visit with her sister and meet her brother to exchange a few things for our nephew. I usually have a good time down there with my camera so I’m looking forward to a nice day. I just hope the weather holds.
Day 80
I woke this morning realizing old man winter was trying to get his groove back. It wasn’t a heavy snow but there was 4 to 5 inches that needed to be removed from the driveway. Early in the morning I usually tuse the shovel over the snow blower as not to annoy the neighbors too much. It has the added advantage of giving me some needed exercise. All went well and I thought it was going to be a nice day.
When left the house for work it was a clear morning but by the time I arrived 12 miles to the southeast it was practically a white out. We haven’t seen snow like this all winter. I continued for the better part of the day. Around 2pm it once again cleared u and I had some great conditions for pictures. The only obstacle in my way was the snow in the driveway again that needed to be removed. I was a little over half done when I decided to grab the camera before all the light was gone.
To be honest the amount of snow wasn’t as bad as I make it out to be in this picture. We probably had another 5 to 6 inches of the fluffy stuff. I liked the look of getting the camera low and exaggerating the amount of snow.
The sun was low and I might have had the white balance setting incorrect but by processing this as a B&W the picture actually works for me. I’m including the original and would appreciate any advice on how I could correct it. There was some interesting colors in the sky but I didn’t capture them in the original picture.
This is a good learning picture for me. I struggled with it while processing before settling on a B&W process. I learned what can and can not be corrected with Lightroom and/or Elements.




