Sun Capped Pines

I love snow! Yes, the days are shorter in winter, and the weather is colder, but there is something about snow that makes it just so peaceful and lovely. That being said, I am an adventure fanatic so snow also provides a cushion for sitting or falling, and a nice chill when I'm overheating. Also, depending on what is going on with the weather you can get varying levels of blues, purples, and oranges when the sun pops out. Having grown up in New Jersey, North Carolina winters were slightly depressing because of the lack of snow. My parents loved it though because it meant less snow removal. At my parents’ house, we lived at the end of a dirt road cul-de-sac. We had neighbors, but you couldn't see them from our house, and they were barely ever there because they were not full timers on our lake. This meant in the winter it was dead silent. On an exceptionally cold "date", we actually started getting real snow fall. Since we lived 30 minutes from the closest town, snow meant it was time to batten down the hatches to wait out the storm, especially since there was no snow removal where we lived. Most NC snow storms didn't last long — maybe an hour or two — and they were always slushy. But, this storm in particular just kept going. It kind of reminded me of a nice quality fluffy snow storm from Jersey with almost blizzard conditions. For me, that meant it was time to explore by foot. I walked a quarter of a mile down our dirt road to the "main road," then to the right for another mile. I was photographing textures, snow covered trees, and whatever else caught my eye. I was out exploring for hours, and walked close to four miles in at least a foot of snow. I had a blast! When I got back home I continued to appreciate the blizzard conditions and the silence. As I looked out across the water, a little cluster of trees caught my eye. They were smaller than all the surrounding trees and holding onto as much snow as they could. I began photographing the tree cluster. I was loving the texture the blizzard snow was creating and the deep blues I was getting, but I needed some light and contrast. I studied the sky, and noticed these
weren't your everyday blizzard
high clouds: there were some intermittent breaks in
the clouds. After some patience,
the sun broke through to briefly kiss this tree grouping.
I took the image, and while the light stuck around,
I sat
in the snow and internalized this perfect moment
that would never happen again.