Tag: snow

Up on a Hill

Sometimes you need to get up on a hill to see a view. Just like I did when we drove thru Canada.

We drove thru places of snow and ice that were picturesque enough. But then I saw a hill with a parking lot next to it. I stopped and climbed the hill. The view that opened up to me was breathtaking.

The vast flats of frozen river covered with snow, the soft spots of sun light breaking thru clouds, the blue hazy mountains in the distance and a cloudy sky above it all. The view was worth photographing, the awe was worth sharing. I called up the other guys and we spent some time photographing.

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Rear-View Mirror

One of the useful photographic tools: rear-view mirror. I often see a landscape there that makes me stop, jump out of the car and take a picture. Here is one of those photos from the last trip to Canadian Rockies. You can even see tire track from my car as I pulled to the side of the road.

What’s also interesting is that this light was gone in a few seconds. So, catch your moments!

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Only Mountains

There is a saying in Russian culture: only mountains can be better than mountains. So, in this post I’m presenting of photos of mountains and only mountains from my recent trip to Canadian Rockies.

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Let the Flashlight Be

Another example of playing with light. This time it is not at night but at twilight. There was already enough of ambient light and I had to use two flashlights to highlight an interesting bubble structure in the ice.

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Texture on a Grand Scale

A month ago with a few fellow photographers I went to Canada. We visited a few places in Banff, Jasper and several places in between. The weather was mild, favorable to me since in chaos of packing I left winter shoes at home and was wearing my summer all-around shoes.

On the way there an interesting texture caught my eye: a side of a mountain was covered in trunks of burnt trees with a dust of snow powder on the ground. It created rather interesting texture on a grand scale. It looked like the mountain was covered with a shimmering fur. Changes in slopes steepness were creating an interesting patterns in this mesh. After short discussion we turned around and stopped to photograph them. Below you can see my take on it.

One interesting thing about them is light. It was an overcast day and the light was very flat but I think it was perfect for this type of texture. It made photos more abstract.

Black and White

I do like color. I have whole collection of photos with nothing but color in them. But there is still room for black and white photos in my heart. Sometimes black and white is what’s needed to bring out a drama in a photo. Photo like this one.

Shadows in Fog

I like photos in which fog is taking over, photos where viewer need to take an effort to make out what’s on the photo. So, when I was returning once from Snoqualmie Pass and I saw clouds falling down, dispersing into fog and taking over the mountains I exited freeway at the closest exit and photographed it.

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Snow Storm

Storm, be it by the ocean or in the mountains, presents the most interesting opportunities for landscape photography. (It also presents the most challenges.) The sky is changing rapidly and all kind of light show can happen.

One early morning, which most would still consider night, I went to Gold Creek at Snoqualmie Pass hoping to photograph a sunrise. The weather was not cooperating. There were too much clouds. Then the snow fall began and it was heavy. It stopped as suddenly as it started and the clouds started to clearing up.

Eventually, the sun started breaking thru and highlighting parts of landscape. It was the kind of thing I like the most about landscape photography – watch with fascination how light changes the landscape.

Of cause, I was photographing as conditions were changing. They were changing so rapidly that I did not have time to form the idea. I was photographing purely on intuition. Only when I reviewed my photos at home I noticed that I could a fleeting moment of sun streak by the tops of the tress. That’s the photo I liked the best:

Speaking of Gold Creek area I find it very interesting in winter. I’ve went there several times already. Here are some more photos from there.

Haiku

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One of my friends on a recent trip to Canadian Rockies threw in an interesting concept of haiku in photography – a minimalistic simplest image capturing the essence of a story. At first we were amused with it but now I think it is pretty neat concept. I find a lot of images that I’ve captured in that style, such as the one above.

Same Place – Different Look

One interesting thing about nature photography is visiting the same place at different times of a year. Last spring I took a photo of one of the waterfalls on Change creek. Back then the trees were covered with fresh green leaves. Green moss was covering rocks.

I went to the same place about a month ago and it looked recognizable but at the same time very much different: bare trees and snow covered rocks.