Screwing up the Pristine Scene…

admin — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 20:37:56 +0000

Winter in New England conjures up romanticized scenes of perfect light snowfalls coating the trees, with a red barn and stone walls and large fields of unspoiled snow. Maybe a small stream runs through the scene with a white church steeple in the background. The reality of these scenes is that the snow rarely stays perfect for long. Heck, in the real dead of New England winter, the streams are frozen over and the snow is too dry to stay in the trees.

Here’s the truth to these classic New England scenes. They aren’t ever truly perfect. Photography in winter, like any season, is finding the best conditions possible, and making them work for the scene.

When you arrive at your nearly perfect scene, the challenge becomes not screwing it up while scouting it. It’s different than in summer, in summer you can walk almost anywhere without leaving much of a trace. Winter records your every move. Move into a scene too fast, want to move back, your shot has a trace of you in it. It’s no longer pristine. No longer perfect.

I tend to work a winter scene in large arcs. Finding every distant angle for a shot before exploring in closer. I make sure that everyone else in my party is done with a scene before moving in, just as a courtesy. I creep inwards methodically, exploring any opportunity for a composition. Winter shooting takes patience. There is no eraser. And when I’m done, all to often, so is the perfect scene. Winter’s beauty is fleeting…

And thus I present this morning’s scene in three acts. The wide scouting arc. The scene. The aftermath.

Scouting the Scene on the Riverbank...

The Scene...Hoar Frost on the Lamprey River

The Aftermath...

Assignments and Opportunity

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:03:12 +0000

This past winter, I had the opportunity to shoot an assignment for the Mount Washington Observatory, a place very dear to me. It was here that I worked for years as a meteorologist and observer, and a place that fostered my love of photography. The shot list was long, basically updating the image archive, and the weather…perfect. Undercast skies, light winds were followed by dramatic changes in the weather overnight and for the hike down.

A visit to the Observatory earlier this week showed me an interesting use for a few of those photographs. These now wrap the observatory subarus, vehicles that help to spread the educational missions of the organization! They look pretty cool!

Meteorologist Stacey Kawecki Takes A Humidity Reading

Mount Washington Observatory Subaru #1

Observatory Intern Drew Hill Scans Undercast Horizons

Mount Washington Observatory Subaru #2

Any chance to shoot the White Mountains in winter is a cherished opportunity for me, and it looks as though I’ll get to share it this winter with other photographers. I will be leading a workshop through the observatory during an overnight educational trip in March next year. Leading workshops has been a midterm goal for me as I continue to grow professionally, and to do so in support of the non-profit weather outpost is a great fit.

The exact schedule and curriculum is not yet set in stone…but I will likely cover exposure and light, composition, filters and special considerations for cold weather photography. Perhaps you’ll join me…details to come…

Observatory EduTrip - This Could Be You

Jim Salge Photography Blog » snow

Screwing up the Pristine Scene…

Assignments and Opportunity