Garden Of The Gods: Post Snow
I woke to my alarm and sat up in bed with a bit of an early morning stretch. About that time, I got a message on my phone; it was from a fellow photographer. He said it was going to be a banger of a sunrise and that Pikes Peak was visible and everything else was as well. That was great to hear, but I had a problem!
I’d only just woke, he’s already in position, and there’s enough light to see that conditions are going to be nice. You know what that means? It means that I’m running late! I’ve still got to get dressed, get my gear, warm the FBSH up, oh, and there’s that little thing called “a foot of snow in the driveway.” I couldn’t let that stop me! I raced out of the house, cranked up the Delica, and stared out over the driveway contemplating my next move.
My Snow-covered Mitsubishi Delica L300 Starwagon aka the Five Billion Star Hotel (IG)
My house sits up on a hill. It makes for a great view, but it also makes for a downhill adventure when it is snowy and icy. I didn’t have time to clear any snow, but I had to at least clear some as I’ve got a downhill curve in my driveway. With everything being pure white, I’d never be able to tell if I was pointed down the driveway when backing down or if I was aimlessly headed off into the front yard. That’d be an issue, but I had an idea.
I shoveled snow out from behind the rear wheel that I could see from my side-view mirror. I cleared a track that curved around and headed downhill until I thought my Delica would be clear of the curve and pointed straight. From there, my plan was to simply send it! fingers crossed! You can get an idea of the driveway in the below video of me clearing the first half of the storm. Off to the left is where I was parked.
Well, I obviously made it out of the driveway and neighborhood; that was the difficult part. The rest of the drive was just a matter of taking it slow. I passed seven cars on the side of the road stuck in snow and watch one of then slide off. I definitely didn’t want to end up like that!
Garden Of The Gods Under A Fresh Blanket Of Snow | Prints Available
As I was walking up to this scene, I was giddy with excitement! The lighting was gorgeous, but I could see that there must’ve been a cloud on the move behind me as the lighting was quickly changing. While approaching, I began fiddling with my tripod in the hopes of saving myself a bit of time. Wouldn’t you know it, one of the legs was frozen into it’s retracted state. I’d have to shoot the pano handheld as there was no time to mess with the tripod. I grabbed my camera, adjusted the settings to accommodate it being handheld, and snapped away. The above image is a combination of 12 individual images.
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Immediately after I took two panos, the lighting died on the rocks. I was a bit disappointed, but also had four other places that I wanted to stop and photograph, so off I went!
The next two places turned out to be duds. Don't get me wrong, they were decent compositions, only the current conditions we’re “right.” The first had a big cloud behind me and I didn't feel like waiting for it to move. I’d return later assuming the sun/cloud situation got better. The second composition had footprints in it. I’m admittedly a composition snob. I’ll try again there during our next snowstorm.
The next composition you've likely already seen as it’s the cover image for this blog. Here it is…
One Of The many Balanced Rocks within the Garden Of The Gods under a fresh blanket of snow | Prints Available
With this composition, I had to do a bit of scrambling around so that I made sure not to put footprints in the scene. I suspected that they’d not be in the final composition, but that’s not something I wanted to gamble with. I took the safe route. Well, it actually was the dangerous route,but the composition was much more safe. Priorities are what they are. 😉
It can be difficult, especially in snow, to shoot from in the shadows and get a proper exposure. For this scene, I had to Exposure Bracket the scene as the dynamic range was dramatic between the highlights and the shadows.
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I had one more composition that I wanted to photograph before leaving the area. One of the compositions was a wide shot that I often see, but never seem to be in the area when conditions are good. Well, today, I was laying the first footprints into a fresh snow. How could conditions be better than that? The other location was “Peter's Tree.”
A Snow-covered Evergreen Between Two Rock Formations within Garden Of The Gods
After going wide with the two rock formations, I gingerly stepped my way over the snow-covered ice over to a place I like to call Peter’s Tree.
Peter’s Tree Snow-covered Under A Gorgeous Sky
After shooting Peter’s Tree, I raced back to the second composition of the day to see if the lighting was any better.
To Be Continued…
