South March Highlands

[Manfred M]

My wife and I went snowshoeing in the South March Highlands, which is about a 10 minute drive from home. We came to a bit of a clearing towards the end of our outing. It was well into "golden hour" and the the lighting was gorgeous. I had taken my little Panasonic GX7 along in my backpack, so I took these....

It was a nice day with the temperatures hovering around -4° C / 25° F. I think I'm going to hibernate for the next couple of days with a polar vortex coming through with temperatures getting down to -26°C / -15° F. It's too early in the winter for temperatures like those!

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SMH_SS04a by The Grumpy Diver, on Flickr

[LePetomane]

Manfred, Nice shots. It is colder than usual here, too. Stay warm.

[Manfred M]

Manfred, Nice shots. It is colder than usual here, too. Stay warm.

The polar vortex is heading our way overnight. It should be around -26°C / -15°F tomorrow morning and Friday morning before things start to moderate (due to a major storm that is headed this from the USA south-west). I think I'm going to hibernate for the next few days...

[Rita]

Nice images. I hear you on the cold, when I got up this morning it was -16 with the wind chill and we have had snow on the ground for the last 6 days. Not strange for some folks but I am on the west coast and this isn't normal.

[Manfred M]

Nice images. I hear you on the cold, when I got up this morning it was -16 with the wind chill and we have had snow on the ground for the last 6 days. Not strange for some folks but I am on the west coast and this isn't normal.

Some friends of ours in Vancouver tell us that the weather has been rather strange out your way Rita - cold and snowy in December does not sound like the weather you normally get. I seem to remember a lot of overcast and rainy days at this time of year.

Yes, the windchill is supposed to be -33° tomorrow morning. I have no plans to go out at all tomorrow.

[Wavelength]

My God; i am sure i won't survive that low temperature; when i visited Ooty, Tamilnadu, where temperature goes down to (4-5)degree centigrade, i felt deadly frozen. Very nice images

https://www.google.co.in/search?q=Oo...Hc7KAkEQsAQIMA

[Mike Buckley]

Wonderful compositions and light!

[Rita]

Overcast and wet would be the norm but this year even when it has been wet it hasn't been normal. In Oct we had rain 28 out of 31 days and Nov wasn't much better. Now snow and frigid. We might even manage to have a white Christmas this year as I hear that there is another storm heading our way. This really doesn't help for getting out and taking images.

Some friends of ours in Vancouver tell us that the weather has been rather strange out your way Rita - cold and snowy in December does not sound like the weather you normally get. I seem to remember a lot of overcast and rainy days at this time of year.

Yes, the windchill is supposed to be -33° tomorrow morning. I have no plans to go out at all tomorrow.

[mugge]

Manfred, I am pleased that you have not rendered the snow white (pun not intended). You can almost feel the chill. I thought you should know the temperature here in Melbourne is currently 20 deg. tomorrow it will be 25 deg. I'm so mean.
Cheers Ole

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[John 2]

Nice set Manfred. You put me to shame. I haven't picked up my camera in weeks just because the weather here has been a little damp and Dull. -4 C would be bad enough but -26 C would have me emigrating to Oz and that's seriously bad - (if they'd have me which I doubt).

[Donald]

I haven't picked up my camera in weeks just because the weather here has been a little damp and Dull.

Get seriously in to making B & W images, John. That's the ideal weather for it.

[Manfred M]

Nice set Manfred. You put me to shame. I haven't picked up my camera in weeks just because the weather here has been a little damp and Dull. -4 C would be bad enough but -26 C would have me emigrating to Oz and that's seriously bad - (if they'd have me which I doubt).

The nice thing about shooting when it is very cold is that there is virtually no humidity in the air and the images will be very crisp. I'm hoping to get out to get a couple of shots this weekend because the cold also tends to reduce the number of people out and about at two of the sites I am planning to shoot at.

The downside is I tend to look like the Michelin Tire man - all bundled up with layers of heavy clothing (somewhat mobility impaired). Battery life in the camera is not great either. It's also one of the reasons I like my carbon fibre tripod - metal tends to stick to bare skin and I sometimes have to handle the gear with bare hands (for a very short time).

[madcrow]

Manfred, love your images. If we had 6in of snow, the country would come to a stop.

[Manfred M]

Manfred, I am pleased that you have not rendered the snow white (pun not intended).

Snow is white and in the sunny areas the rendering is very close to pure white. In the open shadow areas on a bright day like yesterday the snow actually reflects the blue of the sky. I did a neutral white balance on the snow in these shadow areas to remove the blue colour cast and that effectively enhances the golden colours in the sunlit area. The shot were taken about 40 minutes before sunset, to the light was already quite yellow.

If I were to leave the image on AWB as the camera decided, the scene would look more like this:



The snow in the open sun areas looks white, but the snow in the open shade is close to the colour of the sky, and frankly this does not look right either. The sunlit areas from the setting sun do not look as warm as they did either. Late day snow shots are definitely mixed light and the photographer has to make a creative choice on how to white balance the shot - removing the blue boosts the yellows.

[NorthernFocus]

It's amazing how warm light can make a cold scene look. Temperatures here have been right around zero F since we've been back from NZ. The dog doesn't even want to go out to play.