A few days before today, we had some snowfall followed by freezing rain, wind, and bitter cold. We are expecting a pretty significant amount of snow and I wanted to get outside to photograph a few spots around the yard before they are covered under a blanket of snow. I always enjoy these times, because it’s like nature knows what is about to happen and everything seems to quiet down and become peaceful. Blizzards, on the other hand, are a whole other story. There is a sort of energy in the air. Before a blizzard is a time for making sure all of your emergency supplies are in order and you are prepared to live without power for a lengthy period of time. This snowstorm isn’t going to be anything close to that, so I figured I spend the day in the great outdoors with my camera. The following photographs are of various highlights of my afternoon outside.
The sun before the storm.
This is what the driveway looks like after our first significant snowstorm. There is always a layer of ice below and on top of the snow. This happens every year and this will remain on the driveway until May.
A close-up of the ice.
This is snow in the backyard, covered with a layer of ice.
A beech leaf in the snow (Fagaceae).
An ice-covered beech leaf.
Apple trees in the backyard (Malus pumila).
The garage with a snow-covered roof
After photographing the backyard, I decided to see what kind of wildlife photographs I could take. Here are just a few of our visitors.
One of my three daily American red squirrel visitors (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus).
Blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
Tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)
Downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)
Black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)
White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)
Tufted titmouse
Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura)
White-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
Tufted titmouse
Mourning dove
Black-capped chickadee
American goldfinch (Spinus tristis)
After I photographed some wildlife, I decided to see what was going on with the stream. As the cold weather approaches, the stream will become ice and snow-covered.
I thought the water looked photo-worthy and I went back into the house to get the tripod. Here are a few photographs that I had taken.
(f/8, 1/15th sec., ISO 100)
(f/22, 0.6 sec., ISO 100)
(f/18, 1/2 sec., ISO 100)
(f/29, 0.8 sec., ISO 100)
(f/8, 1/15th sec., ISO 100)
(f/22, 1 sec., ISO 100)
Here is a short video of the stream:
If the weather isn’t too bad, I’ll be out taking more photographs from around the yard while it’s snowing and I hope to share those as well.
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