The last throes of winter, in photographs

Trying to capture a few more winter photographs before Fool’s Spring is upon us

912 words; 13 photographs; 5-minute read

For the past week, we’ve been up in a cabin near Algonquin Provincial Park, trying to squeeze out a few more days of real winter. Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? And it was, while it lasted.

Note: Click or tap on each image to see a larger version.

Our first few days were glorious. On the first morning, I was up at 4am to capture what I could of the Total Lunar Eclipse. For the next few days, bright sunshine with above-zero temperatures brought spring tantalizingly close. But then the rains came, just in time for us to enjoy the last few games of the Brier.

As we drove home today, the temperature hit 18°C, and much of the snow south of Hwy 9 has melted. But winter won’t have lost its grip quite yet, as later this week we’ll receive another Arctic blast with snow and freezing rain.

At its peak, winter has a unique beauty to it, and this year has been one of the best in living memory. On a sunny day, stark blue shadows reach across vast expanses of white. As we head towards spring, there is just enough melting to add flow to rivers that have shed their icy winter grip.

With the sun still months away from reaching its zenith, shadows remain long for most of the day. I could wax on about the light, the shapes, the shadows and the tones, but photographs speak much more clearly than words.

These are what I would call provisional photographs. After editing, I like to sit with them for a week or two, then have another look. With fresh eyes, I invariably see things I missed the first time and end up nudging and tweaking things like contrast, white balance, shadows, and highlights until the finished work feels right.

This idea of the photograph ‘feeling right’ is important. Technique and technical wizardry can only go so far before ‘feeling’ takes over.

Photographs are emotional as much as they are physical. A photograph ‘feels’ in balance or it doesn’t. The differences is impossible to describe. Sometimes it’s a lighting issue between foreground and background or left and right. Other times, it’s exposure, or highlights or shadows.

Does the photograph look ‘right’? Is it authentic to the original subject or scene? This last question is particularly important to me. I refuse to use presets and I refuse to use any kind of generative AI that changes the nature of the scene or subject. Changes like sky swapping, generative fill, and wholesale blue hour or golden hour alterations are not what I do.

What you see is what I saw at the moment of capture and each photo is made using photographic methods, not AI. It’s an important distinction to make. I do not use sky swapping, nor presets, and certainly not Generative AI fill or remove. This is Real World Photography. #Authentic.Original.Photos. And, it’s something you’ll be hearing more about over the coming months.

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