View From The Roadside

Snow At Hursley, originally uploaded by Liam O’Neill.

It snowed across the UK last night, but while the rest of the country ground to a standstill, we down south had mearly a dusting in comparison. By the time I made my way to work the sun was out and the snow was melting. I knew there wouldn’t be much left of it if I waited until lunchtime, so before I went to my desk I took the camera for a little walk.
This is part of the huge field that borders IBM Hursley. The Estate people had ploughed it only a day or so ago. That the snow hasn’t even managed to fill the furrows says a lot about how heavy the snowfall was. I noticed the lines first, and then the little clump of unplowed stubble. It was only as I was taking some shots that the cloud moved away and let the sun light up the field. It was just what the snow needed to give it that white glow.
I had a graduated ND filter positioned with the split somewhere around the trees, to keep the sky in balance with the snow. I knew the camera’s meter would be fooled by the snow and try and underexpose the picture, and that I would need to compensate for that. I also knew that the overexposure needed to keep the snow white would wash out the sky fully. The grad ND was there to prevent that happening.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 10:13 pm and is filed under About Pictures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.