Snowscapes
Fire Road to Silvermine Spillway - 12/28/25
Took a ride through Harriman State Park to admire the newly fallen snow. An overcast sky forebodes of yet another round of frozen precipitation in the next 12 hours or so, but the next precipitation could well be frozen rain. Figured I’d try to get a few shots of the snow while it was in this pristine condition. Any wildlife that shows up today will just be a bonus. The first shot of the day is looking down the fire road at one of my favorite local woodlands at Silvermine Lake.
Silvermine under a blanket of snow - 12/28/25
Under normal conditions, shooting into the sun is not advised, but with the clouds creating a gossamer film over the sun’s disk, I thought it might make for a somewhat ethereal shot. Off to the right, you can see some of the many folks who came out to enjoy the winter weather and take advantage of the snow-covered hill side for some skiing and sledding.
Snowscape along Seven Lakes Drive - 12/28/25
A little bit south of Silvermine along Seven Lakes Drive, I found a scene that seemed a little more natural and sylvan with still having the effect of the sun trying to burn through that thin layer of ice-crystal clouds. I was happier with the results of this shot….more of what I was looking to achieve.
Young White-tailed deer along Seven Lakes Drive in Harriman State Park 12/28/25
And finally, I did spot some wildlife on my way back home along the drive. A young White-tailed deer was browsing in the forest about 50 yards into the woods. Facing away from me, I had to wait on the road and hope that no-one would come bearing down on me. The roadway was pretty quiet, however, so after a minute or so, the deer finally looked up and gave me a quick profile view. The winters can be tough on these guys, but as long as there is still vegetation within reach, this little guy should be just fine.
Tech tip - It is difficult to get the correct exposure for snowscapes, especially when shooting into the sun as I did today. The camera wants to expose for the bright sky around the sun which means that the landscape is going to be too dark. If I expose for the shaded snow, the image of the landscape will be fine, but the sky will then be too bright. One way to get around this problem is to “bracket” my exposures. Instead of one single shot at one exposure, I took 5 shots of the same scene, but exposed each at slightly different f stops or aperture settings. You then can merge the 5 shots, taking the best exposed part of each photograph and blend them into a uniformly exposed image. It’s actually easier than it sounds even if there is a bit of “tweaking” the image once that’s done. Sometimes, you just luck out and one of the photos from the bracketed sequence looks just find all by its self. Much of photography is simply trial and error.
