We lucked out on our drive to Utah. We experienced about the only two days of non-freezing, non-storming days of the past few weeks. It was very strange to go over Donner Summit at an elevation of almost 7,300 feet near the end of December and encounter lots of rain but no snow (even though there were several feet of snow on each side of the highway).

As soon as we arrived in Utah, though, the storms began again and the temperature dropped. When you aren’t driving in it, the snow can be rather beautiful. Today’s photograph is from the bottom of the dining room window. There is a black balcony that provides a nice contrast to the gnarly, snow-covered trees.

Posted on December 31st, 2008 under nature. Tags: snow, utah, winter. Comments: 2

Lower Duck Pond (2008)

All the tourists are long gone on an early, frozen morning at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The lower duck pond in Lithia Park is completely frozen over and snow has fallen overnight.

Posted on December 28th, 2008 under lithia park, only in ashland. Tags: lithia park, oregon shakespeare festival, snow, winter. Comments: 3

Photo from the Ashland Daily Tidings. I’m out of town!

Posted on December 25th, 2008 under only in ashland, people. Tags: festival of light, people, winter. Comments: 2

When the temperature drops below zero (-20 Celsius) all life seems to disappear. At the upper duck pond in Lithia Park all the ducks were gone. Where to I do not know. People were also gone. I’ve never seen the park so deserted or so beautiful.

My camera wanted to run away and hide too. It took three attempts before the lens would come out of its retracted state. I don’t think the image stabilization feature was working, and I didn’t have a tripod. Nor could I risk setting the camera on the ground as it would probably be stuck there until spring. But I did get this shaky image of the frozen pond.

Posted on December 23rd, 2008 under lithia park. Tags: lithia park, nature, snow, winter. Comments: 3

Posted on December 21st, 2008 under nature. Tags: snow, trees, winter. Comments: 3

Santa has finished turning on the lights after the Festival of Light parade. Now the carolers crank out the tunes.

Posted on December 20th, 2008 under only in ashland. Tags: festival of light, winter. Comments Off on Ashland Christmas Party

This is a sight that is very, very rare in Ashland. We get snow a few times a year, but when it snows there are clouds. By the time we get clear skies the snow has disappeared or will melt very rapidly. The night prior to the taking of this picture we got snow and then the clouds moved on. The temperature went below 0 degrees Fahrenheit (about -20 Celsius) so the snow wasn’t going anywhere.

While this may look like a sunrise picture I actually took it well before sunrise. I left the shutter open for 15 seconds. If you click on the photo for a bigger view you can even see some stars. The part of town you can see the lights coming from is near I-5, Exit 14 (14 miles north of the California border).

Posted on December 18th, 2008 under nature. Tags: home, mountains, snow, sunrise, valley, winter. Comments: 5

This may look like ordinary playground equipment. However, if you are in Lithia Park at just the right moment you will get to see that it is actually a moon launching apparatus. After particularly successful launches a bunch of snow sprays out as a sort of afterbirth. It’s very beautiful to watch. I was about 5 seconds too late with this picture for you to see the actual moment of launching. Sorry.

Posted on December 17th, 2008 under lithia park. Tags: lithia park, moon, snow, trees, winter. Comments: 2

After dark I decided to try my first ever night photography in the snow. The snow was just barely coming down. I was trying to set my camera to take multiple shots with different exposure lengths. The above and bottom photos are the results of one of those attempts–two identical photos taken in immediate succession. My settings were incorrect so both actually fired with the shutter open for 15 seconds each (I think, the bottom photo looks like it got a couple extra seconds but I’m not sure if that is really the case).

What happened in the above photo to render the wavy line of light that didn’t show up on the photograph below? I don’t know for sure.

My guess is that a snowflake wandered through the viewing area in the top photograph. That doesn’t explain why it begins at the light source though. Perhaps the wandering flake just happened to be in that position when the shutter initially opened. Or maybe the snowflake came off the tree and not the light. I don’t know. The light doesn’t really look like what I’d expect a snowflake to look like should one have stopped by to have its picture taken. Let me know if you have any theories.

Posted on December 16th, 2008 under nature. Tags: night photography, snow, trees, winter. Comments: 6