First Snowfall

This winter was not a very snowy one and now it is the end of march and it is actually over. I did get a few ‘Oslo in Winter’ shots that I was happy with, and this is one of them.

This was photographed early December. Although I knew from the forecast it was going to snow that evening I had kind of settled into the sofa, with the fireplace going. Procrastinating. Telling myself it would be a long winter with e-e-e-e-endless opportunities for photographing in falling snow. I had skyped with Jeffrey Chapman – telling him I was planning to go out. And a little later – as I was settling into the sofa for good that evening – I noticed that he had tweeted on of my images with a comment like “…in fact – she’s out photographing RIGHT NOW! – Can’t wait to see what she brings back!”  So that did the trick! Got my snow boots on, gloves, scarf, hat, umbrella… and headed for the door. The image above became my favorite image from that evening.

When I first moved to Oslo in the nineties, I lived in the building on the corner. Shared a huge loft flat with two friends initially, people moving in and out over the years so when the owner finally sold it I think I had shared with eleven people altogether. The thought of some of the parties we arranged during those years still make me smile. Especially a party camouflaged as a Halloween party… with 93 guests who had no idea it was a huge singles party. Hm… where was I…!

The view in this image is no coincidence. I have a list of locations that I think will work well in heavy rain or snow, fog or just plain dark evenings. So I had been back here a few times, and I knew where I wanted to stand and what angles i wanted to try out.

As I saw the tram approaching I ran up to “my location”. I had panning at 1/30 sec preset on my “speed dial” as a custom function so it took me less that a second to get the camera ready. I usually end up with ISO 3200 and f/2.8 along with a shutter speed of 1/30 sec so when shooting at night I know I will have problems with anything moving. That’s why i decided to pan the tram.

This is the reason the tram is sharp and the guy with the guitar is blurred, even if he is actually the one who is almost standing still.

I love all the dark footsteps, and the lines that they are creating. The footsteps are still dark because there was no “old snow” under this first snow. It was bare tarmac.

The long shutter speed also contributes to the stripes of falling snow. Trying to get the snow backlit towards a dark background is also an element I try and look for.

I sent it to Fotografi Magazine to be considered for their featured image and this is the result. (Fotografi is the 2nd largest photography magazine in Scandinavia.)

Today I also discovered I was shortlisted / a finalist for the third edition of the Julia M Cameron Award - with this very image - so very exited about that! It is in the “Street Photography and Cityscapes” Category. The shortlist for the 3rd edition is HERE. In the 2nd Edition last year I won a shared 1st for “Spray Painting” and a “Honorable Mention” for “Shepherd Boy”. That was how the Shepherd Boy ended up in an exhibition in Argentina earlier this year. :-)

Other Norwegian finalists are Elin Høyland and Stine Loe Jenssen, both also with two images each.

Well that’s enough excitement for me for one day :-)

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2012 at 21:52. It is filed under Awards, Technique, Winter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.