Winter Trees V

The idea for a series of folios celebrating winter trees had been with me for a long, long time — since my earliest days in photography. At long last, in 2008, the series commenced. The intention was to produce one folio each year. This year, Boreas (the Greek God of Winter) must have been feeling particularly spry. This is the first of three folios photographed and produced from a singular and spectacular morning storm.

Causland Memorial Park occupies a one-block square not far from the center of our small town. Its varied and numerous trees gathered the large snowflakes for a brief pause on their way earthbound. Atop each and every limb and twig an outline of white grew, poised, balancing, waiting. Mid-morning arrived with a stiff winter wind. The snow crystals first blew off the twigs, then the branches, then the limbs. Each gust created a burst of cascading snow, driven down in small avalanches.

By late afternoon, it was over and the winter trees were once again black outlines against a grey sky.