Challenge 56- Snow zooming through the Air..

MainFragger

This past Saturday, I got stuck at the wrong side of the Franklin Mills Mall when it closed, and had to walk around the lot to get from Dave and Busters back to the AMC theater. Normally I wouldn't care, walking doesn't bother me in the least. BUT, in this case it had just started to snow, and the winds were pushing my 250 lb. body around like it was 5 lbs. When the wind was to my back, I found myself propelled into a natural run. When the wind hit me from the side, keeping my balance on the quickly icing ground became a challenge. I had no hat or gloves on, and when I turned into the wind, I found myself shielding my face from the stinging snow. I don't want to be gross, but at one point I spit with the wind, and I never got to see where the lugey landed..It just took off like a shot and was gone. I was at Franklin Mills, but if you know the area, I got a mental image of someone at Neshaminy or Oxford Valley Mall getting pegged by it.

I knew I was too cold to drive right home, so I went to see Casanova, which turned out to be a really fun movie to watch. Afterwards, I got back to my car, and claimed my cap and gloves long enough to take this shot. Its handheld, and was taken at ISO 200, F5.6, 1/3 of a second. The funny thing is, the snow was whipping by so fast in the air that 1/3 wasn't done so much to slow blur the snow, but to bring it out a bit in the dark. There were lights in the original, but they were not evenly spaced, and I didn't feel like hearing everyone say, "Your horizon isn't even!", so I cropped them out, and once I did that, I also had to crop some of the snow at the bottom. I removed color and used levels to bring out the snow and the woods. Oh and for once, I added a border and watermark (sort of).

So what do you think? good candidate?

MainFragger

shatch

Has Potential
I keep coming back to your photo because it has some elements that draw my interest. Yet it was missing some dynamic impact. I took some liberties to play with it in Photoshop (hope that is OK, if not let me know and I'll delete the file from my machine.) I feel it needed a broader dynamic range and a little "coolness". Here was my feeble attempt to try and capture the moment as I envisioned you experienced it. My only concern is I may have gone a little far and now it looks like a scratch drawing with watercolor.

MainFragger

Ummm...
I tried the same thing, and had trouble with it myself for the same reasons. After lots of tinkering, I just felt au natural was just the best way to go.

I agree its not truly perfect.. But its close enough to what I wanted that it doesn't bother me that its not perfect. I probably needed a slower exposure, but considering I was shooting bare handed and handheld in wind and snow, I was afraid to go for it.

MainFragger/Brian

Flyinggina

This is an interesting photo that succeeds in capturing the chaos of blowing snow. If it were mine, I would lose the frame, though. The viewer should be encouraged to imagine the snow blowing wildly beyond the borders of the photograph. I would also try cropping out the stretch of snow at the bottom and some or all of the bright spots on either side. The snow at the bottom is too bright (actually it looks blown out but that may be a result of increasing the contrast) and it keeps drawing my eyes away from the trees and the rest of the picture. Just some thoughts for your consideration. Good luck with the challenge. :

Virginia