Finally time to go out again, and fortunately the world outside was still covered by a beautiful layer of pristine snow. The snow hides all the chaos normally present in a forest and provides the photographer with lots of opportunities for clean landscapes or highkey abstracts. Because I knew I had only one day to spare with the camera, I was in two minds and therefore a bit restless. On the one hand, I wanted to concentrate on landscapes, small details and patterns. But on the other hand, images of birds and mammals have much more appeal when they are portraited in a white snowy world.
So I lugged around the 500mm lens together with the regular landscape and macro kit, just in case. Me being undecided about the subjects to chose, external factors made the decisions for me: it soon turned out to be ‘one of those frustrating days’. I came across no less than 3 Kingfishers, all perched in a wonderful frosty setting, two Great White Herons in a snowy field, two beautiful Hares and several Robins and Blackbirds in a shrub with frosty berries. More than I had hoped for.
But…somehow half the world seemed to have decided that a Friday morning is the perfect time to go out and see if bad timing can ruin a nature photographer’s day. Needless to say they gloriously succeeded. I have truly never seen that many cyclists, dogwalkes and cars in a forest in so little time and they all appeared at exactly the wrong moments: just when a Kingfisher landed on the planned perch, just when I had crawled up to a Heron, just when a Robin had approached the berries I had focussed on. Well…you get the idea. Long story short: I gave up and resorted to landscapes, abstracts and patterns, just as I should have done in the first place. Grmph!
‘Lion’s Footprint’ in the snow; Canon 1D Mark III w. 70-200/2.8; 1/100s at F8 and ISO 200; handheld
