When Mother Nature provides just a hint, a sliver of new snow, you can make it speak volumes with just a touch of light. It would be convenient if She did so for us, but as you can see with these clouds, no light was coming. I turn to ACR Masking for the light. I simply select Objet and, as inaccurately as I can, brush across the top ridge of the mountain. Then I see what AI comes up with for the selection. 99% of the time, the selection is just as random in these instances as if the light was coming from the heavens. Then I simply raise the White and Highlights by maybe Five and bam, the sliver of snow speaks volumes.

The tips of my ears were numb, the breeze coming down from the peaks bitter. The light walked across the mountain face as the wind pushed the clouds about. The winter storm that just hit us broke in spectacular fashion, producing photo ops in every direction. The hardest part of the photograph was braving the cold. The Z 6III was in Dark Tone Monochrome, the Z180-600 at 600mm and the rest, a great memory and rush back to the warmth of the truck. It’s with joy and awe that winter makes its appearance.

The wx man promised us big, bold, stormy clouds. The cool day and God skrim would be perfect for photographing Moose, so off to the Tetons we went. What we found was quite the opposite, bald, warm skies. Jackson Lake had a fog layer present when we arrived a little after sunrise. We dashed over to the shoreline to take advantage of the temporary clouds. They were disappearing quickly. It was pretty easy clicking, the Z 6III in Dark Tone Monochrome that, in combination with the clear, crisp air, produced that gorgeous B&W sky. Then we saw a little wisp appear above the Grand Teton and the longer we watched, the bigger it got. Once the grand fog had left, we did as well, racing to an advantage point for the growing cap. Within a half hour, as you can see, it was really picturesque. The drama in the harsh light, for a change, worked in our favor, producing the simple yet dramatic portrait of rock. The skies produced a bald, B&W, beauty!