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!

I know I know, the wrapping paper from this year has barely hit the floor and I’m talking about Christmas 2023! This is an old editorial photographer habitat, taking photographs this season in preparation for photographic needs for next. If your client asks for fall themed photos from you right now being winter, you can’t go out and take them. This means that if you didn’t take them this last fall, you don’t get the opportunity for a payday. That kinda thought process runs through my own photographic needs and one I have every year is, the photo for my Christmas greeting blog post. This years was taken last year so now I’m working on next years.

These are two runner ups here for this year’s post. There are a couple of tricks I use in this process to pass along. Most important is to create the message this year you want to use next year. What does it look like, say and what type font? This is needed to determine in part the elements in the photograph. And it’s a lot easier to create this now while you’re still in the Holiday mood then next fall. With that, I take the photos and this trick is really important. Photos I take this year for next year I make a copy of the finished photo and change the file name to Xmas ’23#1, #2, etc. I do this so I can FIND the photos a year from now. All I have to do then next Christmas is to select the photo I like best, maybe make some tweaks and post. The panic is on in my mind, I only have 364 days left!