The Snow in Galashiels

Today was a great opportunity for something I've been wanting to do in a long time: Snow Photos! A problem I've had in the past with Snow is that it can be very overpowering and give an overexposed whiteness in your shot. The aim was to work at figuring out a balance. 

Surrounding my house are hills, which I have never explored in the 7 years that I've lived in Scotland. I decided to suit up and step out at 10am, beginning a trek into the unknown. I loved every second of it and I think I may have found something new to enjoy. Boy, was I knackered by the end though!

Now most of these may be considered uninteresting and I can happily live with that opinion. While the plan was to figure out how to shoot in the snow, I also wanted to capture the landscape exactly as it was with every detail possible brought out. These also serve as personal memories of the day!

f/2.8 - ISO100 - 1/1250s

One day I really want to take the risk and enter this field, climb up that hill and explore the vast woodland. There's always been something magical about forests and I couldn't possibly imagine what I may find!

f/2.8 - ISO100 - 1/1250s - +1 Exposure Compensation

f/3.5 - ISO100 - 1/1250s - +1 Exposure Compensation

I really like the composition in this shot. I know that the houses in the bottom right are somewhat distracting but my main focus is on the Eildon Hills in the background which are surrounded by rising hills on either side of the frame. The mixture in cloud tone really adds to the mood for me, and is a great reminder of Scotland's beauty.

f/2.8 - ISO100 - 1/400s

These walls are often overlooked and as I was walking along, I did wonder just how long they had been there and who created them. 

f/3 - ISO100 - 1/200s

Some of the rocks had interesting surface pattern, which I thought was fun because they reminded me of snowflakes made out of leaves.

f/3 - ISO100 - 1/500s

f/3.3 - ISO100 - 1/500s

This was a recreation of one of my final pieces for my Location Photography unit. I tried hard to find a branch that had 3 droplets on but could only find this. The bump in the right side annoys me and while I could have edited it out, I kept it because I didn't want to take away the natural shape. The improvement in this shot over the previous was that I captured the reflection exactly how I wanted and the background giving off a hazy effect when out of focus just added to it further.

f/3 - ISO100 - 1/500s

f/2.8 - ISO100 - 1/1000s - +1 Exposure Compensation

f/3 - ISO100 - 1/400s

What can I say, I just loved the different colours in this tree bark. It's funny how sometimes you can only notice a certain level of detail when you look through a lens instead of directly with your eyes.

f/3.2 - ISO100 - 1/400s

I mistakenly walked into this branch and as I turned to see what had scraped across my coat, I noticed that it was like a bony hand, reaching out. I really like the speckled detail across the surface.

f/2.8 - ISO100 - 1/800s

The Perception of depth. Are the out of focus branches near to the camera or far away?

f/2.8 - ISO100 - 1/500s

f/2.8 - ISO100 - 1/1250s

f/2.8 - ISO100 - 1/800s

I was lucky enough to have a few of these shown on ITV News this evening. They have since e-mailed me requesting my permission to use them on their website. Not bad for a day of fun!