In Brittany, it has to be said that we rarely have frost episodes. Probably because Brittany is a peninsula, the maritime influence, especially that of the Gulf Stream, keeps temperatures from dropping below 0°C most of the time. For those unfamiliar with the geography of France, Brittany is the large peninsula in the northwest, stretching out several hundred kilometres into the Atlantic. Out several hundred kilometres into the Atlantic. But sometimes, cold air from the North Pole reaches us, or we're in a high-pressure zone with no cloud cover (very rare), which results in temperatures well below what we're used to. And that's exactly what happened on December 2, 2023.

For once, the weather forecast was correct. The sky was perfectly clear that morning, and the forecast temperatures matched what I had read on the outside thermometer. From the sound of my neighbours scraping their car windshields, it seemed obvious that frost was on the way.

I had planned to go to the Rennes forest, one of whose entrances is about ten minutes from my house. It's a public forest belonging to the State, with free access and regulated hunting. The forest is maintained and exploited, which means that some plots have been cleared of large trees, mainly pines and oaks, but birches remain, and pines are being replanted for future exploitation. Until the pines reach a workable size, these plots lie fallow, leaving large open spaces where frost can settle on the remaining tall grasses and trees.

After parking in the nearest parking lot to my destination, I still had about 2km to go to this plot. Once there, I set off into the wasteland, taking care not to trample the young pines. After a few metres in the tall grass, I spotted this odd-shaped tree at the edge of the plot. It was still in the shade of the tall trees in the neighbouring plot, and the frost seemed to be holding off.

The sun was just beginning to shine over the trees, creating a backlight whose light diffused through the mist formed by the evaporation of the night's frost.

The challenge was to compose my photo in such a way that there were no overexposed areas due to gaps in the foliage of the background trees while still benefiting from the backlight in the mist. And it was far from easy on this kind of uneven terrain. I had to back up several meters and use my tripod to its maximum height: with the head, the sensor had to be at about 1m90 so as not to include the tall blades of grass that pointed to the edge of my frame. Thanks to whoever came up with the idea of tilting screens, by the way!

As I said, these weather conditions are pretty rare here, and they don't last long. As soon as the sun had passed completely over the trees, the frost around me began to melt, creating wisps of mist over the open space I was in, making 100-400mm photography increasingly difficult due to the movement of the warming air and the misty atmosphere.