This weekend I watched as the last snow on the hills around Preston in the Scottish Borders melted away. Somewhat appropriately, I have just edited the last of my images from a day trip Lee Webb and I took to the Elan Valley in the height of winter.
From Rhyader we took the mountain road to Aberystwyth, fully expecting the road to be unpassable. Sure enough we soon had to stop before a large snowdrift. We decided to have a little walk (long walks are quite difficult in 6 foot snow drifts) around the area and found it to be a wonderland of drifting snow and ice-encrusted blades of grass.
A few minute into our walk I turned to see a large yellow snow plow heading up the road past our car. Perfect! We headed back to the vehicle and followed the plough up the road, taking photographs and helping other motorists as we went. Quite a fun day out!
When photographing in snow I find the hardest thing is to concentrate on finding photogenic angles of beautiful scenes. It is very easy to think "this will look great because of the snow" without checking if it does, often resulting in scenes remarkable only because of their whiteness. I tend to focus on contours and shadows in the snow, hopefully bringing definition into white scenes. I love the deep blue shadows cast on snow and ice and how these contrast with those parts lit by winter sunshine.
I also like to pick out elements that hint at the smothered landscape below. In this case the abundant ice-covered grass blades fitted the bill perfectly, and when backlit looked like jewels.
My favourite photograph of the day is the bottom photograph. This not only shows jewel-like grass,low winter sunshine, and deep blue shadows, but is brought to life by snow drifting through the image. I personally think that anything that adds movement to otherwise static landscapes brings them to life.
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