Winter Fence
Cedar Rail Fence. Winter near Huntsville Ontario Canada. (click image to enlarge)
There is not a better feeling on a cold February day than the slow seepage of 3º Celsius water making its way into your hiking boots.
Out of the corner of my eye I spot this cedar rail fence trailing off into the blurry distance in a white field of snow. Of course this is all happening in seconds as I am cruising down a country road, doing about 60km an hour. Pull over quickly, look in the rear view mirror and back up the few hundred meters travelled since seeing the scene. I jump out of the car, grab the camera and tripod and plunge into a slush filled ditch, camouflaged quite nicely by fluffy clean white snow. There is not a better feeling on a cold February day than the slow seepage of 3º Celsius water making its way into your hiking boots. Funny, you think you would learn from your mistakes but last year I did the same thing except it was a field of flowers in the Kawartha’s and yes there was a ditch, a very deep ditch. And that time it wasn’t snow but long grasses that camouflaged it. Well this time I completely disappeared much to the shock of my partner, emerged on the other side of this mini abyss and calmly set up my tripod as if nothing had happened.
Generally I am pretty good about checking out the terrain before I make my way over to get the shot but today the canvas was set and I just didn’t do my usual due diligence. Oh well. Cold wet feet. C’est la vie! The lengths to which we go to get an image.
Driving the backcountry roads of Southern Ontario, getting off the 401, 400 or 407 or any of the major highways is the only way to see anything in this part of the province. And when this image was shot, it was no different. Travelling north of Pickering off the 401, in the Claremont area, this is an area of rolling hills, farmland, a few woodlots and unfortunately lots of new suburbs. This is the same Claremont that Tom Thomson was born in back in 1877. Generally winter in this part of the world is more like an extended November, not much snow and if there is, it comes and goes with the fluctuations of temperature.
But on this day, winter was alive and well when this scene presented itself. The graphical nature of the image is what attracted me to it; the simplicity of the fence line, its stops and turns leading the viewer into the tamaracks, balanced by the bare trees in the distance. There were few distractions to eliminate as the field was void of them and so the composition came together quickly. The decision to shoot in black and white was quick as the light was soft and pastel like with nice contrasts between fence, trees and snow. The sky merged into the snow and the top of the hill but gave just enough contrast to give the viewer a point of reference between the land and sky.
Winter may be the least popular of our four season’s but the opportunities for getting some unique images abound.
© Robert Stimpson
February 5th, 2009 at 1:27 am
nice photo. and i like that quote about the hiking boots.. such a best and frosty feeling!