Looks like we're Finally Done with Snow

There are still a few patches of snow around our yard and I do plan on getting some more skiing in over the next week or two, with day-trips to New Hampshire being planned.  But I do think winter is over here in New England and, of course, according to the calendar it is officially spring.

Here in Massachusetts we had one of the snowiest Marches in history.  This after one of the warmest Februarys in history with the first ever back-to-back 70 degree (F) days.  

March saw four “Nor’Easters”.  This number in one month is unheard of.  Nor’ easters generate heavy rain or snowfall, hurricane winds especially along the coast, and blizzard or whiteout conditions. In our case we had snow during three of the storms and rain during the last one.  In our yard we had twelve trees snap in half from the weight of the snow, and we were without electicity for three days during the one storm that brought down our trees.

Here's one snowy picture I took after the second storm, which dropped over 20" of snow. I hope I do not have another opportunity like this until next winter!

"Snow Covered Maple Forest"

Olympus E-M1 plus Olympus 12-100mm F4 zoom @75mm (150mm equiv)

Aperture Priority, F8, 1/160, ISO200, +1 EV

Converted to black and white in Lightroom

Snow tip:

To keep white snow from looking mid-tone gray, overexpose the light meter readying by about 1 stop.  Whether you are using A, S, or P modes, just use the EV compensation feature found in even the lowliest camera to add one stop of compensation.

First Nor' Easter This Year

Temperatures fell throughout the day and the wind has been significant, especially along the Massachusetts coast. I can hear the wind howling through the trees. And the snow is falling nearly horizontally. We're in the 14-18" snowfall band. Boston is reporting the first Blizzard in two years. 

I didn't even bother to go outside today. I spent the day looking through photos, staring out the window at the falling snow, and listening to my Neil Young station on Pandora. The snowblower is all gassed up, but overnight the wind-driven snow will just fill in the driveway again.  So I'll wait until tomorrow.

Just past our backyard is a forest of relatively young get maples. I'm guessing that the area was logged some 20 or 30 years ago.  I enjoy looking deep into this stand of maples on snowy days. I think the images I've captured work well when converted to black and white images. 

Here's one I took today, by standing sheltered in the doorway of our backyard screen porch. Taken at 1/100s you can see a bit of purposeful blur from the falling snow. The other settings were RAW, F8 and ISO 1250 on a mFT sensor (EM-1 and 12-100mm lens.) Processing was done in Lightroom using one of the included black and white presents.