Predicted earlier in the week by the Met Office, the snow forecast for most of the UK duly arrived overnight. I might sound skeptical, but it is something of a rarity to get snow where I live, so when it does come along I have to make the most of it.
The alarm goes off at 6.30am and I peer out of the window to confirm the conditions (it is snowing), but I'm a bit disappointed to find that it is not necessarily settling in some places. Not to be discouraged, I have a light breakfast and leave the house twenty minutes before sunrise with my camera and two lenses. I head for the coast initially, but become more and more dispirited as I go, since the nearer to the sea I get, the less there is of the snow. I had had thoughts of recreating similar images to the ones the last time there was a significant fall in the area, two years ago, but it was not to be. The cliff tops and beaches were totally bereft of the stuff, and I immediately turned on my heels and left.
I had better luck the further inland I went, and a local park offered the best opportunities for some true winter photography. It was still snowing, and I thought to myself it was odd that the arctic conditions were, in fact, blowing in from the south east instead of from a more northerly compass point. Still, it wasn't too cold, and temperatures hovered just above zero Celsius for most of the day.
Of course, shooting under such trying circumstances has its drawbacks: keeping the front element of the lens free from precipitation, for one. It was a constant issue and I lost count of the number of times I pulled out a lens cloth to do the job. This task was made easier by the fact that I was using a clear protective filter over the lens (one of the rare occasions that I do), and the sole reason it was on the lens at all.
I spend the best part of two hours taking photographs of those struggling to go about their daily business, or those simply taking the infrequent chance to enjoy the snow for the sake of it. It beats me why people appear to have sleds and toboggans readily available at such short notice when snow is such a rarity in this neck of the woods. Maybe they store them in sheds and outhouses for such times. Maybe they know more than I do. Spooky.
24-70mm f/2.8G AF-S Nikkor. 1/100 second at f/7.1. + 0.67 EV compensation. ISO 640
© 2013
2 comments:
And you have more to come. :)
Fortunately, the Met Office were up to their usual tricks and it didn't happen. By my reckoning they were about 300 miles (483 km) out with their forecast.
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