Hi folks!
As already mentioned in this post, snow is a perfect opportunity to take memorable pictures. In the current article I’ll continue the debate on this subject by focusing on urban areas.
As for the mountains or countryside, snow has the ability to entirely change the face of a city. It’s as if invisible hands throw a white blanket over everything that stands outdoors. The air becomes fresher and in urban places which are mostly polluted this really makes a difference. Not only is the air more breathable but the overall contrast might also improve, which means better photos can be taken straight out of the camera. Certain imperfections like holes in the asphalt or cracks in the walls of older buildings might also get hidden by snow. But most importantly the changed face of the town brings a lot of magic in itself!
Comparing to rural and mountain regions cities can be very crowded. This means you would need to plan your photography walks more carefully to ensure the result doesn’t get spoiled by thousands of footprints or by incoming higher temperatures. Usually snow resists for more days (even months or years) in a mountain area because the weather stays colder for a longer period (and is colder in general than in cities) and there are less people wandering around. In cities the situation is quite the opposite.
In Bucharest it snowed pretty late this year, namely in February. Over night a 25-30 centimetres blanket covered every tree, building, parked car or other outdoor objects. While for many inhabitants (especially drivers) this looked like a pain, for me it was a relief, provided that I had lost any hope it might still happen in 2020. Ask yourself: how would a winter without snow look like? However the miracle lasted only for a few days. During next week the weather got much warmer and every white trace vanished. So seeing how nice it had snowed and being aware that it wouldn’t take long until the melting starts, I went outside early that morning to take some pictures at Lake Dambovita. You can see some of these shots at the end of the post.
Actually the weather is very unstable in this period of the year, at least in my country. Two days it is warm, then it gets very cold and vice-versa. Yesterday when I began writing this article it was again lightly snowing outside. Two days before it was a full-blown spring and the blossom of the flowers could strongly be felt in the air. Probably this instability is because of global warming, who knows? The point is: observe the weather carefully and use it to your advantage. This can be applied for everything, not only for snow (and not only for photography).
Consequently when living in an urban area, it is a good idea to go outdoors and shoot snowscapes either as snow is falling (provided that the blanket has at least 5-10 centimetres) or right after it has stopped snowing. You’ll get different results but in any case there’ll be no regrets. For best results I recommend parks and lakes but even street photography and cityscapes could bring a great satisfaction. As in other landscape scenarios I advise you to take photos during first morning hours or 1-2 hours before/after dusk when the light is ideal. Otherwise the findings I wrote about in the above mentioned post apply to city areas too.
This being written, I’ll let you enjoy the pictures now. Looking forward for your comments.
Take care.
P.S. Check these posts too:
D500. Further Impressions and My Findings about Setting It Up
An Unforgetable Trip (continued)
Winter in Alba Iulia (2)
Meet the Crows
Ice and Icicles
Call of Nature 