Winter

Nothing is more emblematic of winter in New England than a nor'easter. Today's storm depostited the highest snowfall in 24 hours in recorded history at Bradley Field north of Hartford. We got about two feet here in Kensington. After the worst of it was over and the plows had gone through, John and I went for a frigid walk to Paper Goods Pond. The snow was too deep to get near the shore, so I wasn't able to get close enough to capture the swirls of snow blowing over the surface of the pond. It's hard to believe that a few months ago, we were kayaking out there.

White

I hadn't wanted to do a snow scene for "White," but it's finally snowing here in Connecticut, and it looks so lovely. No one had even walked near Lisa's bench at Paper Goods Pond. The snow was falling silently in big, fat flakes like the ones you see in movies set in New England. With all that, I couldn't resist. I took the picture with my Kodak Z915. I used Elements to convert it to B&W (which made the picture more crisp and resolved the blue tone the snow had before) and to add the frame.

COLD: Snow drifts past bare winter trees.

It was a day of contrasts: we had fog, then yellow sun, the drizzle then brilliant sunlight again. The water at the reservoir was part ice, part running current, and part water still enough to hold reflections. Accented Edges with Watercolor plays up the varied textures and the contrast in lights and darks.

Paper Goods Pond is still covered in ice and snow. The bench is dedicated to my friend, Lisa, who died way too young of breast cancer. I always think of her now when I come to watch the pond changing with the seasons.

I used tow effects on this one: first, Old Paper, which added some texture to a fairly ordinary scene that had a lot of flat white; and then Blue Tint, to bring back the chill of late afternoon in the winter.

In late winter, the awakening of the orchard is still in the future--not yet seen, but begining to be felt.

To me, there is something about this version that seems to increase the sense of subliminal life moving under the surface. I used the Flourescent Crayon efffect, then decreased the opacity so more of the original photo showed through.

In another few months, this orchard will be all aglow with blossoms. Right now, it feels like it's holding its breath. One can sense the stirring way down low in the roots, but nothing is on the surface yet.

Isolating the sign and converting the rest of the photo to black & white emphasizes the bleakness of the snowy woods and the hopeful message imparted by the sign.

It's snowing AGAIN! This farm stand is now closed, because nothing is in season in the dead of winter. But the bright green sign reminds us that the days are getting longer and our half of the earth is steadily tilting once more towards the sun.

The Pencil Sketch effect brings out the barren, bony nature of the dormant trees.

Come spring, the words of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins will apply here: "Look, look: a May-mess, like on orchard boughs!" But right now, the apple trees are skeletal, patiently waiting out the winter in rows.

It's been cold enough for long enough that Paper Goods Pond is open for skating. This afternoon, there were just two teenagers out there playing hockey.

Poster Edges brought out the detail of the elements within the ice.

I didn't use a filter on this one. Instead, I converted it to black and white, then lowered the opacity so a hint of the color of the evergreen showed through. Then I played around with contast and levels and such to try to bring out the delicate, lacy nature of the snow.

For the most part, I'm already tired of snow; but today's fell in big, pretty, fluffy flakes. It was what our daughter calls "movie snow." Where it clung to the banches, it was light and lacy.

This photo was just ached for filters. The stark colors and crisp lines were a great backdrop for all sorts of effects. In the end, I called for a family vote. We liked this one, which used Ink Outlines, because it played up those qualities, reducing it to its most striking elements.

I'll be the first to admit that this is not a great photo. Today was one of those time-pressured days, plus it was COLD out there, so I wasn't wont to linger. But we did have a rare sunny day. The blue of a cloudless winter sky--as pale as it is--is such a stark contrast to all the somber whites and greys and browns that it almost seems incongruous. These dried pods hang from a small tree on the edge of a parking lot at my office building.

I used the Sumi-E filter for this one. I think it made it look like a pen and ink drawing, emphasizing the sense of lonliness. It might work well for the Abandonment theme.

A bench at Paper Goods Pond, looking rather lonesome in the winter chill.