For Nate’s spring break, we headed to a friend’s house in Oak Creek for a few days of skiing at Steamboat Springs. We left late, with the idea that we would stop along the way and do a short snowshoe. We chose the Walton Peak trailhead in Rabbit Ears pass. It turned out to be a good choice, and we had a fun little three-mile jaunt. At the beginning, though, we got some resistance from Nate and during one of those periods I started shooting pictures. Many of these will be appearing on Instagram soon as a mini-project titled Snow Shadows. But before I started on those images, I tried a few trees against the skyline (reject) and then a few shots of a snow-covered brook (jackpot). I love the soft curves, the mystery of the dark gap in the snow, and the cool tones of this wintry day. It became my favorite image of the week.
Snow-covered Creek
Fujifilm X-T2, Fujinon XF 18-55 f/2.8-4 R LM OIS at 32mm, f/5.6 at 1/950, ISO 200.
Digital Darkroom. When I shot this photo I was 100% positive it was going to end up as black and white. So much for that— I loved the soft blue too much. I ended up raising the exposure by half a stop, and punching up the vibrance. I also lowered the light temperature to increase the blues. Although originally shot with Fujichrome Velvia emulation, I changed it to Provia in post; the Velvia added too much of a magenta cast. I finished processing by using the spot removal tool to take out a few pieces of dirt on the snow.
WIRR stands for Weekly Image Rich Ruh. This regular feature on Das Has von Ruh will show and describe my favorite photo created during this weekly period. My weeks start on Mondays, as does the WIRR. I’m hoping to include commentary on the story, the setting, the specs, or the sentiments, depending on the circumstances.
Das Haus von Ruh 