Saturday was a complete snowstorm from morning 'til night. I had a lazy day with the cats just watching TV and the snowflakes swirling about the house. Sometimes I could barely see across the hill and the flakes were as large as quarters. The snow was still falling when I went to bed. I knew the temperatures were rising dramatically the next day and so resolved to go out and shovel snow again as I really wanted to get off of the hill.
I was delighted when sitting down for a morning mug of tea I heard the tractor come up the hill and half an hour later I had a clear road. I only had to shovel for an hour to clear the car and my parking area and then I could leave. Grabbing my camera I headed off towards Front Royal.
I stopped at Lake Frederick to see if the lake was iced over. There was evidence of vehicles having come down and driven around the parking lot but nobody had stepped into the snow. I was the first one to do so and had to be careful of what I shot as I didn't want my footsteps messing up the images.
I loved the boats covered in snow, especially the speed boat, but I couldn't understand why it had been left there to get filled with snow which would then turn to ice and possibly damage the boat.
Only two cars came down while I was there taking photos but neither stopped and got out. A shame, it was so pretty by the water's edge. But it was nice to have the place to myself and I enjoyed the childish delight in being the first to plant footprints in that pristine smooth snow. I was also curious to know what had caused that large cracking in the ice, almost as though something large and hard had fallen on to it but there were no rocks or debris on the clean surface. It must have been a huge lake monster banging his head on the ice from underneath.
I got back in the car and driving back up the hill decided to head to to the valley that Melony and I had driven through last weekend. It had been approaching dusk as we passed through with temperatures plummeting so we hadn't stopped to photograph anything interesting.
The creek was covered in snow and ice when I got there with the wall of icicles looking immaculately bright and clear. When we had passed last time someone had painted them in different colors; I was hoping that effect would be gone when I came here and I was gratified to see them clean and untarnished again.
A random set of goose tracks, 11 footprints where I suppose he quickly landed, took a few steps, and then flew off again.
I loved this old house that I passed. I had photographed it last year but today it looked different against white snow instead of green grass. The colors of the interior really punched their way out of the image making an impact against their monochromatic surroundings.
I made a few more stops on the way back home, approaching Marshall as the sun dropped, and managing to grab a couple of quick shots before the light left the day completely. I'm still learning with this new camera but am constantly amazed at the quality of the images when I download them. I'm not doing hardly any editing on the shots, just a tweak here and there, but the increase of detail, color and sharpness is a huge improvement from my previous cameras. My trusty G15 will still accompany me on my explorations as a reliable backup and I'm really looking forward to seeing what the Sony will produce on my next trips.
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