Brussels Sprouts, (c) DEWolf 2013

I took a pretty extended winter break last month and I did manage a few photographs that were successful at some level.  So I thought that I would share them with you.

Winter Stream (c) DEWolf 2013

The first were of some Brussels Sprouts that were still fresh on the stalk.  I got a reasonable  tonality, and also got a nice effect by spraying them with water before photographing them.  I was impressed with the spiral form of the stalks and I tried to capture this.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t too successful,  and unlike Edward Weston, who just took his time and photographed until the vegetables were on the verge of spoiling, here the cooks were demanding and I had to take what I got.  They did taste good, however.

Snow and ice (c)DEWolf 2013

We had a snow storm the Saturday night before New Years, and Sunday morning dawned beautiful though overcast.  It seemed a perfect time to try out my new Canon 70 – 200 mm f/4.0 USM zoom lens.  Snow is always a tough task master, as it tends to bleach out and drive everything else into darkness.  Still I got a reasonably satisfying image of a brook near my house that I’ve been targeting for photographing for some time.  For some reason the image seemed to beg for sepia toning.  Since I’ve shifted to the Canon T2i, I’ve found that I generally like my black and whites straight-up and sans toning.

I also took an acceptable image of a frozen pond with snow.  It was a real lesson in dealing with snow.  It took a lot of processing including a very nonlinear LUT on the grey scale.  This can be tricky and turn the image into a solarization, if your not careful.  But the important point here is that I learned a lot.  Handling your equipment can be a bit of a pain, when you are wading in snow, carrying a monopod, and trying to keep your fingers warm.