A winter wonderland in San Diego, yes I said San Diego. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, it’s absolutely magical. Once a year (and not every year) a winter storm has the right mixture of moisture and low enough temperatures to deliver a blanket of snow to the mountains about 45 minutes outside downtown San Diego at an elevation just shy of 6,000 feet.
Yesterday was one of those magical days. I watched the weather for days hoping things would align and boy did they. I really was in heaven, it was cold, the wind was blowing freezing snow into my face, and the best part is that I had the whole place to myself. It was so refreshing to get back into to my happy place especially in conditions we don’t get often here.
I love this shot, Andrew. You seem to have successfully captured both the highlights of the snow as well as the details in the shadows without clipping either. The image has a lot of depth that draws the viewer’s eye into it. I also like the placement of the trees within the frame. Nicely done.
Nice scene and tonal capture. The partially visible tree on the right could be cloned out. Also, I personally find the tree on left little distracting and wonder if it could be cropped out and the image be framed by the other two forward trees. Just some thoughts.
Saw this post on Instagram and really liked it. I think you’ve done an excellent job with this scene. My only critique would be that the tree on the right has a lot of visual weight that pulls my attention away from the center of the image. You might be able to do a bit of creative dodging to lighten it up a bit, particularly on the right side, but I’m not sure how much this would change things.
In any case, that’s a bit of a nitpick, and I still really like this image. Great work.
You have some spectacular conditions, with this light dusting of snow and the foggy background. This scene translates very well to B&W and I think your processing of luminosity and contrast have done full justice to this scene. The tonality in the foggy background is just perfect.
I think this image could have been even stronger, if some composition issues were better addressed. I do not like how you have cut-in-half trees along both frame edges (distracting). And the two large full trees feel cramped relative to the left and right frame edges. I also find it awkward that we cannot see the base of the leftmost tree (but can see the base on all the others). I think this scene needed a wider view to create more spacing to the left and right. Or perhaps you could have re-composed by stepping forward past those 3 foreground trees and not have included them at all. To me the main appeal in this image is the center and the background. The arrangement of 2 of the 3 foreground trees kind of creates a barrier that makes it harder for my eye to enter the scene.
I, too, remember the excitement of new snow when I lived in SoCal. It was so fleeting that those times were special. I like how you framed the view so that the person is channeled to look into the center of the scene. It gives a great sense of perspective. I agree with @Ed_McGuirk that a bit more space on both sides, just a tad more, would help. It’s also interesting how visibility fades as you go from front to back. I think that helps to make the front just as interesting as the back. Most importantly, is that you enjoyed this pristine scene.
Like all the others, I think you conveyed well the beauty of the scene and how it made you feel. The receding lines of the main triangle, and then deeper into the woods, draw me beautifully into the scene and experience.
Before I read the other comments, I also wanted to see what could be done about the strong partial trees on the left and right. I tried cropping out the left tree, but could not do that with the right, as that just left the massive tree on the edge. The attachment shows the result of a (sloppy) Content aware fill of the right edge tree.
The tonal range here is perfect, IMO. The dark tree trunks have textures as does the light snow and not a lot of empty gray in between. It think I prefer the original crop. This feels quite tight on the two foreground trees now.
Andrew,
I can see why this is your happy place as this image is just wonderful with some freshly fallen snow. It has a clean pristine feel which I find very inviting. I like the direction @Dick_Knudson was taking the scene. The base of the tree on the left still bothers me a little so I was thinking a crop from the left would work. I hope you do not mind, but here is a rework with what I was thinking. BTW, the B&W conversion works beautifully.
