Fresh snow and morning light

Good morning from New Hampshire. We received just about three inches of snow at our house overnight. Since the temperatures have been well below freezing, the snow is light, fluffy, particularly reflective, and blows around easily. So, while keeping one eye on the twins and the other eye on the beauty around the house, I managed to snap a few pictures this morning. Oh, and there’s more on the twins later.

To me, there’s always been something special about pure, white, freshly fallen snow. That, coupled with the various shades of light and degrees of brightness from the heavens, there’s a celestial feel and aura to an otherwise imperfect world. This morning is no different. It’s a perfect, refreshing start to another day that God has given us. The bland, dark and dirty, colors that we as man add to the landscape on winter days has been wiped clean at least for the moment. Before the winds wipe the evergreens clean, and tracks wrinkle the soft  smooth coating, and before the machinery carves up the unbroken, scattering its impurities where they may fall; I wanted to take some pictures. I wanted to try to capture digital proof of the pristine pictures that live in my mind for always but only for hours, if not minutes, in the wild that resides within the moderate populous.

I wish to one day be an excellent photographer. That day isn’t today I am afraid. Fortunately my camera is much better at this than I am. I will keep trying, learning, perfecting the skill, the art. I hope. Yesterday I featured some art done by my cousin Cindy Culberson. One of her drawings took as long as 29 hours. My pictures take a couple of minutes each, which includes remembering to turn the camera on, take the lens cap off, and to download the pictures to my expansion drive. Anyways, in the hours since I took the first picture this morning the wind has already picked up, and millions of flakes that posed for my camera so perfectly have been forced to relocate against their free fallen will.

This first group of pictures were all taken from the back of our house. Primarily looking over a 90 degree span from due east to almost due south. The one exception being the picture with the blue sky backdrop. That photo was taken looking exactly to the northeast. You can see there is some reddish, or maybe orange tint to some of these pictures out back. You know what they say about “red sky in the morning …”. We are expecting another 1 to 3 inches of snow tomorrow morning, if not more.

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Now to the front of the house. These photos are looking at a westerly view all the way to due north. The bluest skies are looking north-northwest. We have a beautiful property in my opinion. It looks its best when there’s pure white snow on the ground, as this covers the lack of time we spend landscaping the areas around the house. I love how nature provides its own filters as sunlight exposes each and every open space left by the mesh of trees, branches, leaves, needles, and snow. The lighting around the property is varied and fantastic, all coming from one enormous source. And just as quickly as I can see the shades, shadows, colors, and lights for a picture or two, it changes, again, and again. As the winter winds blow the beauty from one spot to another my pictures are already history. Then again, I brought the twins to the window to show them the beauty of the blowing snow from the trees. Since then they have both taken notice of the snow blowing around outside several times.There was a whiteout in the backyard for a few seconds. The twins loved it while a part of me gave a little sigh, wishing the snow back to the needles of the evergreens and the relentless might of the last leaves clinging to the oak trees. As the sun climbs to its winter heights, the lines, the shadows, the reflections from millions of flakes all change. Still beautiful, there’s nothing like fresh snow and morning light.