Frozen Forest

When the weather reports started talking about heavy snow hitting my area I packed my camera bag straight away

Although I've captured plenty of frosty winter's mornings in the last few years it hasn't snowed properly here since 2010. The east of England where I live rarely sees any kind of significant snowfall so this was a chance not to be missed.

I don't think there's anything quite like a clear morning after a heavy snowfall...

...blue skies, little touch of cloud about and the glistening softness of fresh powdery snow transform even the most mundane locations into a postcard. So at temperatures of -3c I set out to Hereward Forest to capture the scene.

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Thankfully there had been very little wind overnight and the snow that had settled on the tree branches was still there.

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Unfortunately my luck with the early light didn't last and by the time I reached the ancient pines in the middle of the forest the light was fading and the wind was picking up. However, the breeze stirred the powdery snow into a kind of stunning, atmospheric mist.

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The last two images are my favourites from the walk. To talk technique for a second these are mostly hand-held, single exposures when the light was good, shooting as far to the right on the histogram as possible with the sun in the frame. When the light was not so good I used a tripod and shot multiple bracketed exposures. Some of the shots are panoramas stitched from a couple of frames as it was too cold and damp to switch to my wide-angle lens.

Equipment Used

• Nikon D7000
• Sigma 17-50 f/2.8
• Tripod & remote release
• Adobe Lightroom & Google Nik Collection

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