Slithering Snow Snakes!!! January 20, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: blowing snow, Cape Cod, Hawley, sand dunes, snow, wind-blown snow
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Four inches of new snow overnight, combined with persistent winds up in the hills, turned many a high meadow into sculpted ‘scapes, including this one on Grout Road up in Hawley:
I hung onto my tripod to keep it from taking flight with the wind as the world whirled dizzyingly by, snapping these shots at 1/800 of a second in an attempt to freeze (!) the charging armies of ankle-deep spindrift. Elliot might have served my quest for accuracy better, but given his less-than-weather-sealed articulations, I stuck with Ollie for these shots, choosing f:20 for best depth of field and manually focusing about a third of the way into the scene.
Here’s another shot, perhaps compositionally cleaner:
I was gunning for the erosion forms just above the center of the frame, but they were obscured by blowing spindrift. Oh well.
This looks amazingly like a dune on the cape to me; boot the white balance up 2000 degrees, and we’re at the beach!
Pardon my Trompe-l’oeil pretensions, but that snow photo looked enough like sand dunes that I wanted to see how it made the leap. 😉
We’re expecting a few more inches overnight and into tomorrow morning, so I might have more of these (such as they are) to share in the near future.
But I promise, no more Cape Cod In Hawley shots.
Little Bang Theory 
And if you liked those, I’ve got some beach front property in the Berkshires I’ll sell ya cheap!!
If you scroll the top of those last two images (the sky and flora along the ‘horizon’ [can you call it that when it’s (I’m guessing) 40′ away?], the first looks Lunar and the second Martian. Or mebbe is jus’ me.
Scroll them off the screen, I meant. 😦
Cuz, I did that and you’re so totally right – I’m gonna change my name to Hubble or something! 😆
Yes. I like the sand dune illusion. I’m craving a visit to the desert, in fact. New Mexico sounds really nice right about now…
🙂
I liked that sand dune version too! I went from feeling very chilled to the bone to feeling all warm and summery in that last one! 🙂
Gina, you’d like the Southwest, as long as you didn’t have to interact too much with some of the flaming right white folk you’ll find there. Good news: it’s huge and beautiful, and so not that hard to find magical places and have them all to yourself!
Mauigirl, it’s amazing what a change in white balance can do for one’s mood! 🙂
I much prefer the original but I understand your need for a memory of summer. The spindrift shots are wonderful.
As do I, susan, though I thought the White Balance / Latitude link was funny. 🙂