Tommy's Blog

We woke up to snow again today. And, as usual, I walked around the yard and took a few quick pictures. I’m not sure why I take pictures whenever it snows except that wherever I have lived, snow has been rare and it was just what we did when I was growing up. Today’s pictures, though covering the same subjects as I have many times before, are a little bit different. Maybe they’re a little bit better. I don’t know that yet and will need some time with them, and then some time away from them, before I can say for sure. But I do know that my approach to the pictures was different and I attribute that to yesterday’s workshop. You can see the rest of the photos on Flickr.

This is the first photo I took of the snow. I saw it on my way up the stairs and just raised my camera and shot and tried not to think too hard. I did make another frame or two of this but by that time I was thinking about it and they were dull. This one has some energy to it.

I think Dawn’s favorite is the one of the sun breaking through the clouds over the lake. I was drawn by the steel-color of the lake and the clouds down close but I didn’t have a long-enough lens on to focus just on that area. I knew that the light would change before I could retrieve one and so, rather than taking the shot with the intention of cropping later, I just looked through the viewfinder to see what I could see with the lens I had. This is better than the original idea I had. Without the experience of the workshop, I doubt I would have made it.

Shooting and processing notes
This was shot at 1/25 sec at f/5 using–you guessed it–the 17-40 F4.0 L at ISO 800. I hadn’t even had time to think about the camera settings. I just dialed in an approximation of aperture and ISO that I thought would let me get a steady shot and made this before the the idea was gone.

Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: January
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: January 2008 Photoset
Flickr: January 2008 Extras Photoset