Wordless/Wordful Wednesday... Pictures of Winter

What fire could ever equal the sunshine of a winter's day?

Henry David Thoreau

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it - the dead feeling of winter.  Something waits beneath it - the whole story doesn't show.

Andrew Wyeth

I love winter, but so far this year I've been disappointed with the dull nothingness of the weather.  No sparkling frost-hardened mornings, no winter sunshine, just camera-numbing greyness.  Then on Saturday night all this changed as we of course had that snow... (deep sighs of happiness).  I love the look of snowy landscapes, of everyday objects transformed by purifying drifts of white.  The downside of course is of course trying to travel anywhere in it, but I did manage to struggle into the local town to visit the cemetery on Sunday morning (it's good for photos ok?).  What I really would have liked is a shot of one of my minions wearing my super duper black velvet coat wafting about amongst the headstones - but of course Helen and Cath weren't there and David blatantly refused to have anything to do with THAT particular scenario.  God some people are just SO selfish...  I digress... the local paper have asked me to send them some of these shots for a piece they're doing, all good for the portfolio.

Of course because it was so bright outside my camera had a 'DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!' moment  and immediately tried to underexpose everything.  What would we do without exposure compensation?  It was however rather trial and error to overexpose enough to make the snow white without blowing out the highlights.

(And for those of a sympathetic nature... I got a wet bum and cold feet from lurking in the snow... plus our central heating boiler broke down and wasn't fixed until this morning so the house was freezing, much to the disgust of the cats, plus I lost my favourite mittens...  You can almost hear the violins can't you?).

I love these gates... and I like the way the open one beckons you through to the path beyond.  I tried this in creamier almost sepia tones too, but I prefer the green tint in this one because it looks as cold as it was.  

This was one of the first images I took when I got to the cemetery - it was very foggy and I wanted to  emphasise that with the processing so kept it light and ethereal.  I really like the way those furthest away trees recede into the mist.

I do like that strong shot of colour against the background. I'd like it even more if that gravestone wasn't dissecting the tree!  You'd think they'd plan things a bit better wouldn't you? ;O)  I'm still not 100% sure about how best to process this one (cloning the gravestone out might be an idea!), I did one in very light,  white and blue tones, then did this instead.  Hmmm, something to play around with this week methinks.

Again I tried a few different effects on this but in the end went for icy tones.  

I obviously developed a bit of an obsession for the same setting in Lightroom...

And because I can't let a week go by without at least one black and white shot, here's a completely different take on those gates.  Just made for high contrast.