Adi wrote about how he should take more photos because snow is beautiful. I agree.
I wanted to talk about something that I’ve been noticing a lot recently that I’ve wanted to photograph. I suspect that between the lack of light and my poor photography skills, I would probably fail to capture what I see. Perhaps a written description is better.
When I’m walking by the green late at night, I’m always struck by the way that the light from the street lamps hits the trees. The lamps aren’t very tall, so the light comes at the trees somewhat horizontally. The trees and the little mounds of snow around their bases are illuminated against the blackness of the rest of the green. They’re like perfectly isolated subjects in a photograph. The untouched, clean color and Seussical form of the snow makes a nice contrast with the harsher angles and dirtier colors of the trees. With the cool, still, sterile air and the focused, isolated lighting, I feel like I’m in a museum looking at a winter diorama with a single snowy tree. Someone must have stolen the wax cave man.
There’s something about horizontal lighting. I noticed this a couple years ago while I was riding a train in northern Italy. The sun was low in the sky. We were traveling through countryside. It was flat and grassy. But it was beautiful. I couldn’t stop staring at the grass. There was just so much dimension. So much contrast. Maybe it also had to do with the oranges in the light of the setting sun.
I sometimes wonder how much more beautiful these small things would be if I weren’t red-green colorblind.
“Red-green colorblind”? Don’t you mean “exceptionally slow”?
I wonder what the mountains look like to you in autumn, when they are polka dotted with red, green, orange, yellow, and brown. I hope they are still beautiful!