Capturing snow

This weekend, we went out to Shaun's parent's house and had our family Christmas. It was lovely, with a bit of extreme drama there at the end, which I'll get into in another post. For now, though, some of my photographic adventures. Feel free to vote for your favorite when you get to the end.

At this time of year, I adore snow. Snow was so much of my childhood, every holiday season, that I can't really get in the spirit of the holiday without it. Luckily, this year we've got snow to spare. But even though I love snow, it's really hard to take a good picture of it. It's so...white. Even when it's breathtakingly beautiful in person, in a photo, it just looks blank. I tried photographing things in the snow, like these trees, to show how the snow leaves divots around each tree and goes on forever (that's the lake in the background)...

This snow is right next to the back sidewalk, on the lakeside. It's sculptural and ridged and neat. But the picture? Meh.

Here's the classic "snow in the pines" shot. The lighting wasn't too great, though, but I like how the arc of the snow follows the needles around.

Here's inside the shed, in the front yard. I liked the ridge of snow on the door, and the misty snowy pines in the background. A close up of snow clusters. V is really interested in snowflakes these days, and often presses her face almost into the car to see them close up. A tree with red berries, shot from below. I like this one, even though, again, the lighting could be better.

This one is festive. I like the three wrinkly berries in their little hat of snow.

I went inside to warm up, and came back just after dark. I need you to understand that these photos were taken in -11 degrees, and I can't use mittens/gloves with this camera. So appreciate how I suffer for art, will you? Here's the front sidewalk snow, at night, with the light from the living room windows. It kind of looks like a giant bird head, doesn't it? Still, the ridges of snow are clearer and kinda neat, I think.

Back in the front yard, here's one of my favorite trees, taken from near the shed door, looking up (obviously). The light is odd back here, because there's a streetlight in the yard. I kind of like it, though you can't see any snow here.

Finally, the same tree, just a few seconds after the above picture, this time with the flash on.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.