Winter’s finally there and boy have I been enjoying it. I spent most of the weekend outside photographing landscapes that I normally pass without even giving them a glance. Everything just looks so much better when covered under a layer of ice and snow. My weekend started with 5 hours of waiting in a small tent for a Buzzard to come for breakfast. In vain. In spite of several layers of warm clothing, handwarmers and warm snowboots, I froze my ass off, and more. I have never been that cold in my entire life. When I finally had enough and got out of the tent, it started snowing. I jumped in my car and drove to a more suitable spot for landscape photography.
I never got there, as on the way I came across a large flock of Bewick’s Swans (Cygnus bewickii, Kleine Zwaan) and a small herd of Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus, Ree) that were all happily munching away near the forest edge. The background is normally blemished by a farm and the nearby motorway, but the dense snow hid all that ugliness from view. By chosing a small aperture, I got a lot of snow in sharp focus, giving the idea of digital sensor noise. I think it adds to the monochromatic look and feel of the image. After a while, the snowfall even got denser and in the resulting shots, you’ll be hard-pressed to recognize the lone figure in the corner as a Roe Deer.
Saturday and Sunday morning were spent photographing wonderful sunrises in the snow-covered heather. It was blisteringly cold at -18 degrees Celcius, but as long as I kept moving, I felt warm. Besides the beautiful surroundings, I also enjoyed tracking animal tracks a lot. On an unspoiled fen, I found the tracks of two foxes that met halfway and went on together from there on. Reminds me that it is rutting season for foxes. Those cute fox cubs are in the process of being made! But that’s something for spring, for now I hope King Winter spends a few more weeks in his Dutch realm.
Roe Deer in Snow Flurry; Canon 5D Mark II w. 500/4L IS; 1/60s at F11 and ISO200; beanbag from vehicle