Rural Winter Photography

Growing up in Jersey, 3-4 inches of snow meant we’d have a delayed opening. Thankfully, in Carolina that means if it snows Friday night, people still have work off on Monday. Main highways are sketchy and side roads are atrociously laden with ice, we just don’t have the equipment to handle even small accumulations.

As if a little bit of snow and ice was going to stop a photographer on the weekend. Since I went to Lake Johnson and Lake Wheeler the last time we had snow, I ventured to some other spots such as Yates Mill, Dorthea Dix, and a few local stops on the roadside.

Not sure what it is, but my last two location shoots I’ve shot and developed to be moody and/or gritty. Really not sure if it’s the time of year, if I’m trending towards something, or if I’ve acquired a new addiction to dodging and burning in B&W.

On Sunday morning, I went to Yates Mill which was closed to the public. Ingenuous and unique photographer I was, I took the back way to trespass onto the property – where I discovered another photographer crouching taking shots. Then a couple walking their dog came through. And another couple. And yet another. Then another photographer. Then two more photographers taking shots of the Mill from the overpass.

Glad I came up with that idea surely nobody would think of. What made it worse was when I uploaded the images from my camera, they were all out of focus. All other shots I took before and after looked fine. Turns out I shot everything center-metered – looks like I’ll have to wait until it snows in these parts – like in 2011 or 2012!

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