Night snow

Nikon D7000, 28mm (Tamron 28-200), 3 sec., f/8, ISO 100

Snow wasn’t in the forecast, but there it was nonetheless. Although it started at the end of a long day, I thought I’d venture forth briefly and get some shots anyway. This picture is the best of the set, and you can see the detail better if you click on it to enlarge it.

If I’d had more time and energy, I would have dug out the camera’s raincoat and installed the lens hood in order to keep the snowflakes off the lens. As it was, however, the blurring from the melting flakes produced an interesting effect with the lights. I was especially fond of the contrast between the fuzzy geometry of the droplets and the clarity of the unobscured parts of the image (such as the tree branches to the left).

The light streaks are from a van that passed through the shot while the shutter was open. With a three second exposure, the dimly-lit van doesn’t stay in any one place long enough to show up in the photo. But its lights are bright enough to leave trails, even when reflected on the slick pavement. The dashed lines were produced by the van’s turn signals.