Another manzanita bush; but this one ended up a bit "under the weather":)...Yeah, it can be uncomfortable to get up early in the morning after a snowy night, or stand around trying to frame and shoot while your hands are freezing, but fresh snow is such a great subject for minimal, stark, white-on-white images. Something I've been wanting to work on for a long time, but just wasn't in the right place. Cloudy days are ideal, so you have more flexibility of time to work... and, color or monochrome seem to work equally well. This shot looked fine in pure monochrome, but I decided to leave it in color for now; I think it feels right with the cold blue cast in the shadows to emphasize the feeling.This will be the first winter in many years that I am actually living where it snows, so I am hoping to put together a nice, unified folio of winter images this season.
No, I'm not quite done with the autumn stuff yet, but it'll keep for a bit. We're well into the winter season up here in the mountains and I've been kind of slow getting started on taking advantage of this new environment's opportunities. I figured it's about time to get out and capture some of the beautiful local scenery.. winter is probably the most attractive season, photographically speaking, in this area.
Manzanita bushes are everywhere up here and they are an especially interesting subject with their intricate branching and contrasting bark that grows away from the wood over much of the tree.. this one has more bark coverage than most. They stay green all winter and produce thousands of small red berries, thus the name which means "little apple" in Spanish.I found this almost perfectly shaped one growing among some lichen-covered rocks and snow. There are also some evergreen oaks in the background there, contributing to the green-ness. We were showing some visiting friends around the area and for some reason I just decided to grab my old Nikon D70 that I haven't used for years, and throw a lens on it for walking around. On close inspection, the quality of this image is really awful compared to what I'm used to.. I guess technology really HAS improved a lot over the last 6-7 years. I plan to go back to this spot on a similar day and get it on film, or at least a decent digital capture when I get a chance.
