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Winter Moments
January 2005
The female cardinal shown on our cover does not seem to mind the cold weather or the snow. Gail and Nelson DuBois caught her sitting comfortably on the branch of a snow-covered pine tree. It’s a lovely composition, with the tree on the left framing the main focus of the photograph and a soft area on the right as the camera picks up the colors but not the details of the distant snow, shadows and branches. The red feathers and beak of the bird and its yellow breast bring delightful color into an otherwise gray scene.
On the first spread we see two photographs that take advantage of the cold weather to produce impressive compositions. On the left, Randy Williams’ abstract image of ice-covered pine needles creates an impressive design. The colors of dark green and gray help to make a striking image. On the right, Deborah E. Lans gives us a delicate image of “The Hayfield in Winter.” It looks very much like a line drawing.
Then we come to two photographs of fences, which always look impressive against the white snow. The one on the left by Kirsten Edlund is simple and dramatic. The photographer took advantage of spots of sunlight on the snow to give drama to the image. In Claudia Kuhn’s photograph, which she calls “A Touch of Red,” there seems to be less snow on the ground and it is a gray day, but the composition with the curving road, the trees on each side and the large red barn, creates an impressive scene.
In the next spread we see trees. On the left, Betty Verhoeven’s dramatic composition of what she calls “Winter Crystals” that brighten up an array of branches against a dark blue sky. On the right, there is “Summit Hardwoods on Halcott Mountain” by Anton de Flon. Here the snow creates a blanket of white on the ground, with a delightful composition of shadows forming an impressive base for the upright trees.
We end with “Winter’s Chill” by Joan Holley, who manages to capture the cold air surrounding the snow covered ground and trees. Everything seems to have been brought to a standstill as we look at the blanket of white that has covered the landscape.
--David Finn
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