The big snow storm a few weeks ago dumped 45cm on us … environment Canada says that the second one around Boxing Day would have hit us (in my specific location since it varied across the city) with between 20 and 26cm … I suspect the higher end. So assuming we got about 70cm, we’re talking close to 28 inches of snow on the ground in barely a week! Here’s the morning after the second one …
Panasonic GH2 & lumix G Vario 100-300 160iso f/4.6 1/3200
That blue line is the snow bank in shadow on my side of the street and the far snow bank is my neighbour’s yard. The banks are high enough now to make driving a problem, since it is not always possible to see around corners safely.
So … yesterday’s snow fall by comparison with a mere dusting … except that the dusting started over night and continued all day long. I got out in the afternoon and had this small coating of snow on the car …
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 160iso f/2.8 1/1000
The roads were really slippery, as the dusting of snow had covered any ice that had formed at intersections etc. Sliding 10 feet was common when braking. What a PITA.
The Queensway (major highway cutting Ottawa in half from west to east) was snow covered and rather slow. Here, you can see the slow traffic (doing 60kph or so) and the bridge allows you to see the snow falling, otherwise invisible against the sky. The streaks on the windshield are obviously from sighting the snow and ice …
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 160iso f/2.8 1/125
Even more accumulation much later in the evening … and the snow continues to fall.
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 1600iso f/2.8 1/50
The roads downtown are treacherous, sliding being the norm even while driving in your own lane. Sheesh.
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 1600iso f/2.8 1/25
The way home on the Queensway is incredibly slow, as there is a phalanx of snow plows way out front in their half-V formation (lead is on the inside, then each plow follows in staggered formation to throw the snow up on the outside shoulder at 40kph. It’s very cool to watch … not so cool to be stuck behind …
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 1600iso f/2.8 1/30
The plows are not doing the neighborhoods though, as there is simply not enough accumulation to make it worth the cost.
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 1600iso f/3.2 1/6
Note the incredibly low shutter speed. Once you get good at hand holding a camera, and have your stance and breathing under control, shutter speeds like that are not difficult to use. Especially for web presentation, since downsizing always compensates for minor blur.
The black and white presentation is simply something I like to do to combat all the nasty orange street lamp poison once in a while. The excess blue in these was even more unnatural than previous images, so I gave up and rather than control it with slight desaturation, I went with the more dreamy B&W look. The contrast is boosted to get the clean whites with the nice deep greys and blacks, and the trick to get the more dreamy soft look is simply to dial in negative presence. Seriously …
There is enough snow to do a cleaning of the driveway in the morning though …
panasonic gx1 & sigma 19mm 2.8 1600iso f/2.8 1/13
The next (this) morning, things look rather pretty in the back yard, having been again reinforced by a dusting of snow.
panasonic g5 & lumix g vario 14-140 160iso f/4 1/3200
panasonic g5 & lumix g vario 14-140 160iso f/4 1/4000
panasonic g5 & lumix g vario 14-140 160iso f/4.1 1/4000
More snow predicted in flurries this week 
