Posts tagged frost

A Hint of Pink

Dec01
2012 Written by Stephen Street

For a short period between the recent onslaught of deluges it actually stopped raining, skies cleared and the overnight temperature dropped to a low of -4.2 °C.  Freezing temperatures and soaking wet ground usually means lots of frost by sunrise.  And so it proved to be, at least on moorland tops as the valleys had filled with very thick fog.  Avoiding the light-sapping fog I set out to see what my local red grouse were up to.

Males were very actively ‘strutting their stuff’, calling continuously and scuffling occasionally in defence of favoured territory, but were very nervous about being watched, understandably so.  It’s the middle of the grouse shooting season and I’m not sure if they can tell the difference between a camera and a shotgun.  Getting close was nigh on impossible.

There is still some colour to be seen in the heather, even though everything takes on pastel shades when wrapped in frost.  Greens leaves are slowly breaking down and giving way to brown, woody stalks.  For a short while, as we progress further into winter, the brown stalks will sometimes take on distinctive orange streaks and magenta tints that can be surprisingly bold in favourable light.  At the moment though, they are only just starting to develop and on a bright frosty morning a hint of pink is the best that I can hope for.

Red grouse on frosted heatherBy mid-morning a thickening cloud layer was already creeping steadily across the sky and this very welcome respite was clearly coming to an end.  Just after sunset the deluge resumed in earnest.

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Down Up Down

Nov11
2012 Written by Stephen Street

Each morning when I get up one of the first things that I do is look out of a small north facing window.  First I look down, then I look up and then down again.  It’s almost a ritual and an essential part of starting my day.  I don’t know why I do it, but I do.  Even though, almost without fail, I’ll do exactly the same thing again as soon as I get to a main window.  What am I doing?   I’m checking weather conditions.

In winter I’ll be looking for any sign of snow.  During the months of spring I live in hope of subtle mists.  In the height of summer I’ll just look to see how it is, as this is usually a photographically dead time of the year for me.  But in autumn, particularly in late autumn after a clear night, I’m looking for frost.

I look down to see how white the ground is, then I look up to see how clear the sky is and then back down to check how extensive the frost is (I’m often amazed at just how localised patches of frost can be).  At this time of the year the ground still holds plenty of latent heat from summer and it doesn’t take much warmth from the sun to see off whatever frost has formed.  A number of clear cold nights in a row helps, with sequential frosts building up in intensity.  At least until a weather-change chases them away.

When leaves are falling, as they are now, I love to photograph what I think of as leaf mosaics.  They are easy to see and I only have to walk as far as my garden to find them.  This is good, because I know I won’t have long before any frost melts away.  I take them as I find them.  They are all frozen together anyway and trying to move a leaf inevitably destroys whatever arrangement has caught my eye.

This is simply a fun subject for me.  I’m drawn to the intricate patterns like a moth to a flame.  So with all of the interwoven shapes and colours laid out before me, I’m in my element.  It releases my inner child and takes me back to a time when I used to kick leaves up into the air just to see how they would fall.  And where is the harm in that?

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A Touch of Frost

Feb21
2012 Written by Stephen Street

The ever-changing moors keep throwing up surprises.  It’s why I keep looking for photo opportunities even when it all seems to be a waste of time.  After heather’s purple bloom at summer’s end and the autumnal golden glow of fading bracken, the dark brown blanket of hibernating heather that covers higher ground during winter couldn’t be more of a contrast.  Things don’t look too pretty then and it takes a covering of snow or frost to get my shutter finger twitching again.

Like most people, I’ve been studying local weather forecasts daily.  Unlike most people I’ve sometimes been studying them hourly.  That may seem excessive (I fear a touch of OCD is coming on) but it helps me make the most of what fleeting opportunities there are.  The contrast between this winter and last winter is remarkable.  Last year it was snow, snow and more snow.  This year it’s “Snow, what’s that?”  Not only has there hardly been a flake of snow but it’s also been very dry, so frost has been hard to come by as well.  There is nothing else for it; I have to keep studying weather charts so that I can make the most of any opportunities that come along.  On this particular morning I had correctly anticipated some frost, the daybreak colours were a welcome bonus.

Last year Freebrough Hilll was swarming with sledging children, aged from 5 to 95, for several weeks.  This year nobody seems to be interested, except for just one weather-obsessed photographer making the most of a short lived frost.  Thirty minutes after this picture was taken it had melted away.

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Go To

Feb01
2012 Written by Stephen Street

Most photographers that have been playing at this game for a while have at least one subject that they will return to repeatedly.  For some it may be an ongoing garden bird project, for others it may be a local fox den, or then again, it could be a wider brief such as woodland abstracts etc.

Surrounded as I am by intensely managed shooting estates, one of my ‘go to’ subjects is the somewhat predictable red grouse.  Grouse are a good subject for me as they are readily available, present all year round and can be seen whatever the weather (gale force winds excepted – nothing seems to enjoy gale force winds, including this photographer ).  Over the years I’ve built up quite a library of grouse photographs so I am now a little fussy about what I want to take.  That’s one of the beauties of a go to subject, it gives you a real chance, no, it forces you, to go beyond the obvious.

Every grouse I see draws my eye, but I don’t necessarily try to photograph it.  There has to be something special to make me reach for my camera (it used to be a reflex action – “There’s a grouse!” click, click, click; “there’s another one!” click, click, click. – but now I’m a little more considered in my approach).

It was sparkles of sunlight dancing off frosted grass that caught my eye here.  Once I’ve got a victim in my viewfinder I’ll take whatever I can, ordinary or not.  The real selection process takes place back at my computer and generally I’m a frequent user of the delete key.  I plucked this picture out of my inbox and quickly worked it up for your viewing here.   It looks okay but it is similar to others that I already have, so when I get around to working this up fully it will probably be let go.

Thirty minutes and one mile later I came across this scene.  It was a much more difficult photograph to take, but it is unusual in its setting and completely different in character to the previous shot.  This alone means that in my book it will be worth a second look, and when I get around to working it up properly I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that it’s a keeper.  Unless I come up with something similar, but better, the next time I go to photograph red grouse.

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