Local wandering in the snow.

 I'm just so busy in the studio at this time thgat today I only ventured out locally with the dogs. As ever, the camera was to hand and my eye was on the lookout for anything like a decent shot. As you can see, the snow hasn't even thawed slightly, if anything we had another dusting overnight.
 Now I admit, not every trip out will result in a brilliant photograph but if you don't practise the looking for that special shot then I believe you will never improve your work.
 Here's the two shots that I came back with.

Retired for Winter.

 I pass by this old machine regularly on my walks, most times it doesn't warrant a second look but today my attention was drawn to the contrast between the white snow and thew black barn wall. The contrasting patterns of the corrugated iron and the machine added to the shot.

Roots.

 In West Plantation there is a great mixture of trees, from very old Scots Pines to wonderful mature Beech trees like this one. The blown snow gave a form to the roots and the colour of the lichen on the trunk really enhanced the frame. It was only when I got home and downloaded the shot that I noticed that fallen branch on the right. We had some discussion on my Facebook page as to whether the branch was a good or bad inclusion in the shot....the branch stays.

A Little bit Abstract

 With the bleakness of the current spell of weather I had to be a bit inventive with a subject for a reasonable photograph today. I only ventured out from the studio a short distance and I recalled the old hedgerow in a nearby field which I had passed by just a few days ago.
 The dogs were happy enough to run through the fields of fresh snow whilst I made my way to the line of trees. I had to be careful to approach the subject from a distance so that the foreground snow remained undisturbed. The object of the exercise was to produce a very stark image in black and white and todays conditions seemed to be almost perfect. Here is the result.

Treeline.

The image has had very little editing done to it. Converting to black and white was the main task which rendered the foreground completely white. The only other real work was to remove the top of a distant telegraph pole inbetween two if the trees. I'm rather pleased with the result.

A Teesdale Winter

I have just edited a small selection of photographs together from the recent wintery weather here in Teesdale. Hopefully it will give a sense of the beautiful scenery that has been produced even though the quality of the compressed photos on the clip is reduced compared to the originals.