For a long time, I wanted to capture an image containing snow. The question was, "How will I compose an interesting image of white elements? "Recently, I asked myself the same question with the moon; I found the answer using a leafless tree on my neighbor's property. This image is published on my LPM portfolio.

Snow is defined as "Atmospheric water vapor frozen into ice crystals and falling in light white flakes." For me, it is winter's white gold!

So, on January 13, 2024, as there was a snowfall in Montreal, I revisited the Hawthorn tree. I was amazed to see the snow piling on the colored red fruits. A beautiful tall conifer was on the other side of the street. Its shape would be a good background. I had no intention of performing macro photography.

So, I went inside the house to get my camera and the flash. Using my long focal lens, its long hood would protect the lens from falling snow. Handheld, I used a 120 mm focal length to compose the image. When I triggered the shutter, the flash illuminated the red fruits and the snow in the foreground. As expected, the tree in the distant background would be out of focus. Since it was windy, I raised the ISO to increase the shutter speed to 1/400 sec.

Looking at the final image, I was amazed to see the lighted colored fruits topped by the winter's white gold and the distant-shaped tree. The falling snow amplified the bokeh and hid all the houses on the other side.

Once again, this image and the moon mentioned above remind me that we must keep our eyes open for nice opportunities around our living area.