It was a delightful evening with the gulf breeze on our back as we photographed the gathered birds. Then the light turn that color, you know what I’m talking about, the color and feel signaling the end of the day. I turned to see a flaming orange ball coming down on distant Fort Desoto. This is why I have that “landscape” lens in the bag. I took off the Z400f4.5 and attached the Z24-120 and enjoyed the brief show. It was quite the fiery end to the week but it a solid week of really good bird photography. It was like it was all planned for our parting, a sweet adieu.

Snow is this magical form of water that dances down to settle on the landscape at the will of the topography and wind. Often it’s just a carpet of white undulating with the land reaching for the horizon. Then there are times when the lands and wind come together to create the softest of sculptures lasting at times, just for hours. It requires cold temps creating very light snow that doesn’t stick to itself. It seems forever, these natural art forms have fascinated me causing me to point my lens at them trying to capture their fleeting time. This past week in Yellowstone i think, think I might have found my own personal recipe for bringing those sculptures home.

It all starts with a snow storm dropping a minimum of an inch of new snow. If it’s falling on old snow that has already started to melt, if can take more than an inch of new, You then need that breeze to work its magic, Finally you need the soft light so you have the ever so slight shadow, It’s that shadow that brings life to the sculpture. What I found this year bringing home so many images I like is the lens. The Z50f1.2 with its “normal” angle of view and its really shallow DoF brought to the viewfinder what I’ve been looking for. The final ingredient I like to add is exposure, top photo was +1/3 and the bottom was +2/3. Might not have been enough but it works. I realize snow for some does nothing for them and while others, they don’t wanna see anymore of the white stuff. There’s no question I’m a bit different. I go out when it’s -26 with the Z 9 looking for winds snow sculptures.

So many times I’ve seen a scene, a subject and my heart gives way to logic and I just keep going. I don’t stop and not until later do I regret it. Ever been there? I learned long ago the hard way that there is no time like the present to make the image. Last week in Minnesota is a perfect example. The ground fog was thick and the temp and dew point created gorgeous hoar frost. It takes just a drop of sunlight to make it all disappear, I know that, so without hesitation I stopped to shoot. Like so many aspects of photography, it requires previous failure to learn this simple concept. It requires seeing the photograph in the review mirror, the turning around and not seeing the photograph at all, to know you should have stopped when your mind and heart screamed, stop! Not that every time that happens and you stop there is the photo of the lifetime, but there is nothing worse than the shadow of doubt, the “what if?” That’s why no matter what if my mind says there is a photograph, there is no time like the present!