They tell me that yesterday was the first day of Spring, but when I looked outside…

And it is still snowing.  I have yet to succeed in getting a picture that freezes the snowflakes mid-air. Though I know the theory behind it for during the night, those techniques don’t wok during the day.

Our four-foot fence encircling a small play area for young children is currently nearly buried – another six inches of snow and it would be covered in places.  And no, we didn’t pile up the snow to that level.  This is really just the accumulation over the course of the entire winter!

Wait! Did I say entire winter? In my opinion, winter isn’t over yet despite the general stores’ advertisements for barbecues and clearance sales of snow shovels.

Since we are Still Winter, some of us took advantage of the white covering and telltale signs of cold weather to do some moonlight photography.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4a

Some people say that there are four seasons in Canada: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Road Construction.  If that is the case, I believe we are currently experiencing Still Winter.

Unlike many March snowstorms, last night’s precipitation came not in the form of large wet flakes that clung to every surface and clothed the trees in robes of white.  Rather, the chilly temperatures brought tiny crystals of drifting snow that, carried by gusting icy winds, created quite another kind of beauty.

Stephen and I dared to venture out with our cameras late last night.  Finding only partial shelter just within the barn door, we quickly learned that lens hoods can be used to keep out things other than direct beams of sunlight!

One of my first shots

Sadly, by the time I was set up for this shot, the wind was dying down.

The cows seemed grateful to come indoors for the night.

This morning, Evelyn took a look out her window…

… while I went out to check the electric fence and try practising some of what I learned during the photography workshop.

Will it keep the cows in?

an attempt at forced perspective

Can you find our picnic table in the picture below?

Thank you, Lord, for the marvels of winter!

“Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?” Job 38:22

There were so many pictures taken during the photography workshop, that I could not possibly go through them all myself. So, I simply asked for everyone’s highlights. As can easily be seen, some really stretched out their creativity.

Learning to utilise Lightroom was an interesting experience for all of us. We enjoyed playing around with it.  Some alterations made the pictures look better; others were tried out simply for the sake of experimentation.

This post wouldn’t be complete without the famous pictures photographers always take…

And despite the apparent overabundance of Canon cameras, there were actually more Nikons users attending the class.

One final photo courtesy of Jonathan…

It is amazing how, in the space of only a couple weeks, the way one looks at one’s surroundings can be radically altered. As some of our readers already know, the past two weeks here were taken up with preparing for and hosting the CAPTURE Quebec workshop. James Staddon came up from balmy West Virgina and braved the frigid Far North winter to teach techniques on photographing snowy landscapes.

The gorgeous climatic conditions a week prior to James’ arrival festooned the countryside with the exquisite beauty only winter can bring.  An abundant snowfall followed by mild temperatures and sunny skies triggered hope for the same kind of weather at the end of the month.

The Lord, however, had other plans.

On the first day of scouting for good photography locations, precipitation fell in the wet form of rain. Though the scouting excursions were accompanied alternately by excellent and adverse weather conditions…

… by the first day of the workshop, the temperature had dropped and heavy clouds had rolled in. Our “sunrise” photos the following morning hardly acknowledged the presence of the blazing ball of fire we knew to be out there and the cold put the vibration reduction feature on our cameras to the test.

The challenge of shooting virtually two-tone scenes was somewhat daunting, but not insurmountable. There were certainly days when, upon arriving home and viewing picture after picture that looked as though it had been taken in monochrome, we felt a certain discouragement. Notwithstanding, we were encouraged to take up the challenge of being creative, focusing on composition, rather than lighting and colour. And the Lord gave us one evening when the clouds parted and we actually saw colour in the sky! And by getting really creative, some even shot photos of the light pollution that looked much like a sunset! Selections from our photo shooting sessions will, however, have to follow in another post.

Thankfully, given the chilly outdoor temperature, we did not spend all our time out in the field. Classroom hours taught us the theory behind creating a pleasing composition for a picture.

The instruction on post-processing skills using Lightroom proved, at least for myself, to be an exciting addition to our knowledge base. I delight in no longer having headaches over wondering which of my many files is the most up-to-date! Discovering all the interesting functions of this program resulted in some unique alterations. But I’ll leave the demonstrations of that, too, for another post.

Not all our time was spent in scouting, travelling, shooting, post-processing, and such like. Sunday afternoon before the workshop was a wonderful time of relaxation as we enjoyed fellowshipping and a time of games.

The concluding evening of the workshop, we savoured a traditional Quebecois treat – sugar on snow!

Sunday, our final day together as a group, we were joined by several other families for worship and a fellowship meal. A cake made for the event seemed fitting. And we even saw how the inside of a camera looks!