Our First Snow of 2020 and What I am Learning About Photography

Well it finally happened! We got snow! WooHoo…a good four inches!

The second week of January 2020…a fair amount of snow blanketed the Washington DC area. Schools closed as well as the Federal Government…because that’s what we do. We basically don’t know how to handle bad weather..so we freak out and over react. We rush to the grocery store to buy bread and milk…because we may run out over the course of a day or two. We stand in long lines at the gas station..worrying we may get stranded on the roads. We put chains on our car tires and rush to the hardware store to buy shovels and salt.

I grew up in the DC area and have seen this happen for decades. I giggle about each and every time. Slowly over the years…we get better about the way we handle snow. But we can only get as good as weather predictions. As the accuracy of weather forecasts increase, so does our response. It’s a painfully slow process but human behavior is also slow to change.

Anyway, we very much enjoyed our mini snow storm and I took the opportunity to capture the moment with my camera or cameras and learn more about photography. Being a blogger, I am trying to learn as much as I can about taking photos and playing around with different settings, apertures, and trying to understand more about exposure.

I also filmed a short video of our home in the snow, you can view it HERE.

The blurry background effect is one of my favorites and the iPhone does a magnificent job of capturing the “bokeh” effect.

A shot from the top of our driveway and our son playing in the snow. This picture was taken around 5pm at dusk when daylight was beginning to fade.

The type of snow during this storm was the perfect picture taking snow. It was a heavy wet snow that looked so beautiful resting on the tree limbs.

As many of you know, we recently painted the exterior of our home, Home Exterior Modernization Final Reveal .

And added outdoor lighting – Our Home is Lit! All About Outdoor Lighting.

So I was beyond excited to get our first real snow…and see our painted home on a hill nestled in a blanket of white. I absolutely love it!

I also enjoyed playing with different cameras and settings to capture the various lighting.

I don’t doctor my photos or use photoshop to change anything. I always try to capture the most natural picture and use mother nature as my photoshop.

You’ll notice some pictures are darker or more blue than others. That is due to the time of day the picture was taken.

In the earlier part of the day, the pictures appear more white.

Slowly as we approach dusk, the pictures get more blue. This is not due to anything I am doing to alter the photo, this is all due to lighting and the slow elimination of natural light.

Photography is all about light!! The proper lighting or lack of good lighting will make or break a photo.

I love this picture of the snow falling with our house as the backdrop. This picture was taken with a flash, which is what captured the snowflakes. The house appears a bit darker, because the camera is focusing in on the snow.

In the later part of the evening, pictures will appear the darkest blue, eventually turning to black when all the natural light is gone.

This picture reminds me of a “postcard”, the sky was perfect and the lighting from the homes created a wonderful glow for the camera to focus in on and capture a shot.

It’s important to think about dimension in Photography, in this shot the uplighting on the snowy branches peek into the capture.

In just a moment’s time, the sky has changed and the clouds have shifted. The sky is less blue and more white. Again…I have not doctored these photos in anyway…it’s all about the time of day and lighting.

On occasion, I have brightened up a photo a bit if there was not enough light in the room, but my preference is always to show the most natural picture possible without making any adjustments to the photo. Mother Nature should speak for herself.

I am in no way a professional photographer…but a beginner learning by hands on experience 😉 If you have any photography tips, I would love to hear from you. Drop me a line in the comments below.

Denise

XO

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