BIG SNOW STORM!

As beautiful as falling snow can be, it’s a little depressing to watch a blizzard in progress, as you know how much work it will be to clean up. And since I am off to Helsinki tomorrow, I had to do that this evening. Else the boys would have to do it … and heaven forbid they do some yard work :-)

Before I actually blew out the driveway, I grabbed the D700 and shot some images. First with the 70-300VR and then with the Tamron 28-75 to get the wider view.

I shot at extremely high ISO, 6400 and 12800, but that does not phase the D700 as much as it would the D300. In fact, with clever processing, it’s pretty hard to tell that these were extreme ISO images at all.

The snow was still coming down when I shot these, so there is a nice background effect of flying snow to some of the shots. As I stepped out of the house, I framed the tree first and then the yard in general. Both were shot with the 70-300VR at 6400 ISO. The first was shot at 1/15s and the second at 1/30s.

  

I kept that lens on and shot this image down the street at 12800 ISO and 1/25s. No light to speak of.

Then I shot my neighbour’s son blowing out his driveway, also at 12800 ISO. The shutter is at 1/20s here.

Note that these are only lit by one overhead lamp on the corner and the small bulbs on the houses. The light was rather warm, so I am pushing the blue channel hard on these.

I popped back into the house for a moment and grabbed the Tamron 28-75 2.8 for a few more shots. No VR but a faster lens. The front yard image as I stepped out is nice for 12800 ISO.

I dropped back to 6400 ISO for a shot of my house and car. The Lumina is with Nick at work and is on its way home as I shoot these.

My front entrance is lit by one small bulb and these LED Christmas lights … the holiday comes but once a year, but lasts a very long time at my house.

And that’s all I shot with the D700. I put the cam back inside and pulled out the snow blower. The process took close to an hour after I dropped off my car. Nick returned while I was blowing the driveway and came out later at my request to help clean things up with a shovel while I finished.

I then took out the Fuji F70EXR and shot a few images at 1600 ISO. Bracing the camera allowed me to get some decent images, despite wicked low shutter speeds.

My front yard one more time at 1600 ISO and 1/8s.

The H.M.S. Lumina across the street, where I had asked Nick to park while I finished the driveway. Nick is just coming around after brushing snow off the windows.

And finally, a view of my neighbour’s front yard and a beautifully shaped apple tree. I pushed the snow to white, which turned everything else a nice blue.

Some pretty nice images when you consider that they were shot by the light of a single street lamp and the lanterns on houses.