Winter on the Holston River
Christmas morning snow on the Holston River, Bristol TN.
Christmas morning snow on the Holston River, Bristol TN.
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Dec, 2020Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This shot was taken Christmas morning 2020 hiking near my home in Tennessee along the Holston River.Time
This peaceful winter image is what followed when I woke to a fresh overnight snowfall on Christmas morning 2020. With little traffic and families visiting relatives for the holiday I knew this area of the Holston River would be crowd free and fresh white snow covering the ground and trees could not look any fresher against the blue waters. I was extremely fortunate to capture such a peaceful scene on the first snowfall of the year. This image was taken at approximately 9:00am December 25th 2020.Lighting
I wanted this image to show a peaceful winter morning. I provided nothing special for lighting in this scene. The cool blue skies with light clouds drifting by along with the white snow cover in the landscape provide all the natural lighting needed to capture this peaceful winter morning.Equipment
I captured this image with a Canon 5D Mark III full frame camera using a 24-105mm, f4.6 lens with a polarize filter attached in order to not blow out the whites in the image and slow the rivers flow. Aperture setting at f11, ISO 100, shutter at 1/80 and focal length at 35/1. My camera was mounted atop my Oben tripod with a 2 second shutter release setting.Inspiration
The inspiration for this shot was to just capture a white landscape and the beauty of the outdoors following the first snowfall of the year. Being Christmas morning I viewed the fresh overnight snow as a gift and knew the normal winter scenes of little color in the foliage, leafless trees and the grey of the landscape that we typically see on winter days would have a drastic change with the pop of pure white snow. This scene did not disappoint with the bright blue skies as well as the blue rivers flow taking on a vibrant color against the white snowfall in the landscape.Editing
This shot was taken in one RAW image. I did post processing in light room to bring out and intensify the blue of the rivers water against the white of the snow. Very little processing was done to bring out the image I seen when taking this shot. I did however adjust the white balance from auto to landscape, I increased the vibrance of colors and brought out the shadows to bring out the color in darker objects. I also increased the exposure to open the whites in the scene.In my camera bag
The equipment that never leaves my bag. First of all is my Canon 5D Mark III full frame camera, along with my go to lens in most any situation from shooting landscape, portrait as well as macro images, my 24-105mm f4 zoom. I also pack a 16-35mm, f2 zoom, my 100-400mm, f4.5 and a variety of filters. The 3 stop, 6 stop neutral density, a soft grad neutral density and a polarize filter to bring out the colors in sky and landscape. My camera mounts on top of a sturdy Oben tripod that is also light enough to take out on the trail without much weight to carry.Feedback
First of all shooting a snow covered landscape can be a little tricky at times in order to not blowout the whites in the snow, but also be able to capture the darker images in the scene such as the trees and color in the sky. To compensate I recommend using either a neutral density filter or in my case I used a polarizer filter to darken the scene when shot and to capture the bright whites in the snow without blowing out the dominant whites in the scene.
