Yellowstone snowscape captured by Z 9 / Z50f1.2
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.
