By André Costantini
It doesn't matter where you are in the United States this year, one thing seems pretty certain, 2012 will not be remembered for a harsh winter. I was out in Colorado a few weeks ago and even in the mountains you could see the grass poking through the lack of snow.
Last weekend, in the Catskill Mountains there was finally a day that looked and felt like winter and to celebrate this glorious occasion my fiancée and I hiked up Slide Mountain. It wasn't until the sun briefly managed to break through the clouds that I noticed that all the trees were completely encased in ice, making it truly a "Winter Wonderland."
Halfway up the mountain we came across this easily accessible subject and took turns looking for compositions with the Tamron SP 60mm F/2 Macro. Inherently, macro lenses have less depth of field at closest focus especially at wider open apertures. This makes focus critical but also allows you to select a specific point of interest.
It's funny that the images seem to convey calmness, which completely does not depict the reality of the windy conditions and snowfall that was actually occurring at the time of capture. Anyone that has macro experience knows that when even a slight breeze can blur your subject, high winds and snow would make it a bit more challenging. When I downloaded the images I noticed that these two looked great together because they had a similar rhythm even though they were from different perspectives and decided to create a diptych. Often the placement of images next to each other can change the meaning or the mood. In this case, the curves of the individual images become more lyrical and accented, more like music instead of merely notes. And that is my brief and tiny bit of winter.
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