We had heavy snow all day …

…partially obscuring the far, Byng Inlet, shoreline, and a pair of ice huts:

We went for a short drive along Hwy 522…

Creek flowing from Grundy Lake PP to Portage Lake looking North from from Hwy 522:

Tamarack swamp west of Pakesley CPR crossing:

Experimenting with mood:

Hunt camp east of Jamot Lumber Road turn-off:

Rock cuts have new dimensionality:

No, the wind hasn’t changed direction!  Still out of the east, but at our back as we return home:

Other side of the road:

Creek again, this time looking south:

Niffen’s fence post:

Snow storms are always quite exciting!

A low pressure area over Hudson’s Bay spread continental arctic air over this part of the world again so we had a day or two of bright, calm and cold weather.   This is what we saw:

Jack pine skeleton on Hwy 407 enroute to Meshaw Falls…

Looking upstream from the Falls bridge.

Downstream ….

Creek flowing from Grundy Lake to Portage Lake at the snowmobile crossing….

Byng Inlet in the morning…

Adeline at dockside …

CPR trestle over Magnetawan River just as the sun sets.  These vivid gold/oranges and dark blues are what we saw, characteristic of “Golden Hour” light.

Some folks really like Golden Hour Photographs.  Fun to play with.

The first few days of the New Year brought some cold weather, a snowstorm and a couple days of cold clear weather.  This is what we saw …

Bleak sunshine on the road ditch along Hwy 529A into Bayfield Inlet…

Twin Rivers  is freezing up the first time this winter…

We practiced making pictures of falling snow,  trying to capture the mood of the action.  Focus mid-foreground.  Longish shutter interval depending on windspeed driving the snow.    Capture as much light as possible.  I try to use ETTR generally.

Click on the images to see the real texture of the falling snow.

These were made along Hwy 529 including a trip into Hwy 529A:

Ancient (1907?) CPR concrete culvert under the MacTier-Sudbury branch, carrying CPR and CNR westbound traffic only.   The eastbound traffic is handled by the CNR trackage.

Two fishing tugs resting at Bayfield Inlet for the winter.

Well convoluted rocks show up well behind the negligee of falling snow …

Jack pine stands out starkly alongside the road …

Typical sight along Hwy 529 … Tamaracks, Tag Alders, a dead Jack pine and distant White pines.

On the day after the storm little critters left tracks as they scurried from shelter.

On Still River Road Niffen’s fence post still points at a spruce tree.

We went for a drive up Jamot Lumber Road, which had just been plowed …

From the Bailey bridge over the Pickerel River …

On the way back, along Jamot Lumber Road…

Sun is getting low on the horizon… giving the snow a pinkish glow while the shadows reflect the scattered sunlight of the blue sky above…

Creek under Hwy 522 near Grundy Provincial Park is in shadow…

Nice colours at the end of day at Boucher’s Pit Road…

American Tree Sparrow is pecking seeds in my driveway …

Winter is here!

In addition to enjoying the textures of falling and fallen snow, we saw some interesting ice features, animal tracks and even some wildlife.  And, of course, we stopped to appreciate the creative efforts that Brittonians made to light up the festive season.

Here a some samples:

Twin Rivers freezing up for the winter on Boxing Day …

Snow accumulating on New Year’s Day …

Ice building up on Harris Creek at Hwy 529 …

Delicate filigree in the ditch along Hwy 529A to Bayfield Inlet …

A deer left its tracks as it crossed Niffen’s fence line on Old Still River Road.

Pair of River Otters left their tracks and slide marks on Harris Creek along Hwy 529 …

Festive lights in Britt:

Dave and Irene’s…

Doug and Doreen’s …

Diana’s …

MJ’s …

Notice the shadow of the condensation trail on the closer cirrus clouds:

Red sky at night, sailor’s delight … clear, calm and cold the next day …

This ruffed grouse isn’t as fluffed up as the two in the following pictures…

These Ruffed Grouse have been feasting on the buds of Aspens, all species of cherries, and White and Yellow Birch…

And they appear all puffed up to insulate themselves from the cold…

Chain and its shadow across sparkling snow early afternoon… (click on the photo to see the detail.)

Snowball leaving tracks much later in the afternoon —– giving long purplish shadows and pink highlights.

We are getting our deep cold a month or two earlier than normal this year.  Perhaps we will enjoy an early spring.   While that would be very nice for us humans it might lead to further de-synchronization of floral and faunal associations.

It is not the fact that the climate is changing, it is the speed of change that ecosystems cannot keep up with.  Last year’s spring, with its huge damage to deciduous leaf buds by the early hatching of larvae — before the arrival of their migrant predators (insectivore birdies), might be becoming more common.

Meanwhile we will enjoy it while we can.

Some of my friends know that I am challenged to capture the delicacy of the texture of snow, especially when sparkles demonstrate specular reflections of sunlight from crystal faces.   Here are several examples of what I’ve been trying to get pictures of over the last week or so:

I am including this first one because the sources of light passing through the lens are very different and of some importance to a careful picture-maker.

1. The light from the sky is scattered light from Sun.
2. The light from the snow is mainly diffused reflected light.   Some white dots, which appear as small “sparkles” are the result of specular reflection of Sun’s light by the planes of individual snow crystals.
3. The light from the rock is diffuse reflected sunlight.  There is very little light reflected from dark spots, where there is low reflection (and large absorption) of sunlight.

Although the following is not a picture of snow, it illustrates the very different texture of frost crystals compared to snow.

New-fallen snow has very soft contrasts (except for the specular reflections).  [Aged snow, which as melted and refrozen a few times, turns to sugar snow then to corn snow, with high contrast between the “grains”.  I haven’t included any here since we’ve had no mild spells!]

Attempted compromise between capturing the sparkles without making the snow look like white beach sand:

Edge of an ice floe with some crystals freezing before the camera:

I had to include this because it is nice!  …

One of these days I’ll learn why this frost flower has formed at this branch.

Very fresh windblown snow still with snow crystals.

Ragged shadow of the spruce tip shows the irregularity of the snow surface.

Delicate:

Also delicate …

SHARP! ….

One of my favorites ….

Two different cameras: This a FZ1000 at 432 mm:

GH4 with 100-400 Leica lens at 500mm EFL, which cost 4X as much:

Getting a good orientation of the snow surface is important…

Notice the windblown snow against the dark portions of the image.

Delicate …

Good exposure challenge …

What is the above collection to you?

• An amateur picture maker’s attempt at technical self-development?
• A little bit of art?
• A little bit of both technique and art?

Always a bit of fun, eh?