Spring Snow

NB:Because of the technique used to create the first three photographs below (seeherefor more information) they need to be enlarged to display properly. Click on each photograph to view a larger version.

Snow Willows #2ƒâ€˜ Ontario, 2000

One week-day morning in mid-April I woke up to find that a couple of inches of snow had fallen on Toronto overnight. Spring foliage wasn’t very well advanced yet, but the willow trees in a nearby ravine looked as if they’d been sugar coated. I knew that the snow would only last a couple of hours before melting away. A drive into the country was out of the question because of mid-week traffic so I grabbed my camera gear and headed to a bridge overlooking a nearby wooded ravine.

A couple of days earlier I had just received my newCanon EOS-1Vcamera and I was eager to put more than a test roll though it. This unexpected opportunity didn’t disappoint.

Photographed with a Canon EOS-1V and 100~400mm f/5.6L lens on Fuji MS @ 100

Snow Willows #1ƒâ€˜ Ontario, 2000

Because of the extreme contrast caused by the snow under bright-sun conditions I decided to useFuji MS 100/1000film. Because this film was designed for push processing it has quite soft contrast when shot at its normal rating of ISO 100. The extra grain of MS over my usual film, Provia 100F, wasn’t a concern because of the texture of the subject matter.

Photographed with a Canon EOS-1V and 100~400mm f/5.6L lens on Fuji MS @ 100

Snow Willows #3ƒâ€˜ Ontario, 2000

The three above photographs have all been worked on in PhotoShop using a technique calledGaussian Blur Overlay. This is similar in what it achieves to the use of a traditional fog filter, but much more effective. It is ideal when an image contains lots of very fine detail but when you wish to accentuate the broader tonalities. As noted above, it is worth the time to display each of these photographs in their larger versions to properly see what this effect can accomplish.