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Lens-Artists Challenge #328 – Winter

Winter scene at Crater Lake National Park.

Winter will be upon those living in the northern hemisphere in only two weeks. For those who live south of the equator, you will welcome summer. I’ve often said that I love looking at photos of snow-covered winter scenes on my computer in Arizona. On November 19, we had our first snowfall here in Fargo, North Dakota. It snowed, and the wind blew hard all day, but in the end, there was just under one inch (2.5 cm) of snow on the ground. This week’s challenge is to share your photos of what winter means to you. For me, it’s landscape photos, but for you, it might be something creative or exciting that you do in the winter. I could have shared our hiking adventures in Arizona over the years. Snowbirds like us don’t always have a gallery of snow-covered landscapes to share.

For my opening photo, which happened to be taken in early fall, I submit this winter scene from Crater Lake. It wasn’t warm when we started up the mountain; it was cool and rainy. At some point on our journey to Crater Lake, the rain became snow. We didn’t see the lake as heavy clouds in the crater hid the view. While there, I only took one photo and converted it to a high-key black-and-white. I am sharing a few of my favorite winter scenes for this challenge.

Christmas Day in Horace, North Dakota.

This year, we won’t be heading south until after Christmas; the specific date is still to be determined. We often share the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with our daughter, her family, and her in-laws. That was the case on Christmas Day, 2017. We were at her in-laws’ house in Horace, North Dakota, and I looked out the window to see the sunset. I was so taken by the golden tones in the snow that I stepped outside to capture the photo.

Paria Viewpoint at Bryce Canyon.

Yet another autumn found us at Bryce Canyon for the first snowfall of the season on October 29. Only the day before, it had been raining and foggy. That morning, we woke early to get to the park before sunrise. Before we could leave, however, I had to sweep a good six inches of snow off the car. The sunrise was glorious, and the snow covering those red rocky cliffs created several of my favorite winter landscape views.

The Red River of the North at Fargo.

In 2018, we were again in Fargo for Christmas, and on December 30, after a fresh snowfall, I ventured down to the river at sunset. As you can see from the tire tracks and footprints in the snow, we weren’t the only ones who wanted to capture the river views.

Denver, Colorado panorama.

In November 2018, we had already driven down to Arizona for the winter and stopped to visit our friends Fred and Ellen, who lived in Denver then. We went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. A large glass window wall on one of the upper exhibit floors provided a landscape view of downtown Denver. For this challenge, I used images captured that day to create this panoramic view of the city covered in fresh snow.

Last week, Sofia’s challenge focused on the Five Elements of Wuxing, a Chinese philosophy. Next week, it is time for our annual year-end challenge. In December 2022, the Lens-Artists team introduced a “Last-Chance” challenge. The idea was to review the year’s images that never quite fit our challenge subjects that year. The “rule” is that your chosen photographs must have been taken in 2024 and not have been included in response to our 2024 challenges. Go through your gallery and join us on Saturday, December 14, at noon Eastern Standard Time.

John Steiner

127 comments

  2. Beautiful snow scenes John! I especially like the sunset/sunrise pictures. Since we don’t get snow in Sacramento, I’m going to have to travel to find some cool images! It’s not too bad. Some are just an hour away!

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    • That’s good to hear, Jim! You’ll have some cracking winter shots. I didn’t realise you’d not come across Lens-Artists- some of the finest photographers we have.

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      • Thanks Jo! there seems to be a number of challenges out there and I’ve been thinking for a while whether to dip my toe in. Obviously landscape is my main area but I have plenty of other pictures that could find a home somewhere and out of the ones I have looked at this seemed to tick the boxes. Every day would be too much but once a week, picture focussed sounds OK. 😍

  10. Thanks for sharing your wonderful winter captures Johnbo. Unfortunately, we don’t have snow here in Melbourne during winter. We have to travel 4 hours to see it.

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  16. I will admit I am definitely not a fan of winter John but it’s hard to argue with nature’s beauty following a snowfall. Hope your travels get put together and that you get to spend holidays with family. I’ll be braving the winter up north for the holiday and altho I dread the cold I look forward to seeing the family again. Hopefully no snow!!

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    • Thanks, Lindy. It was a lucky turn-off as we drove by the river to see the sunset’s progress. So many of my favorite photos are of the “right place, right time” luck. >grin<

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  24. Oh, so beautiful, John! Hard to pick a favourite. It’s all about that magical light on the snow. I won’t be taking part, hon. Me and snow parted company long ago, though the child in me still loves it. Maybe you have the right idea in not going south till January. We always end up going ‘home’ for Christmas, even though it isn’t any more. It’s not Christmas without our youngster. We just hope the weather is kind to us in those 5 days!

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  34. Fabulously wintery shots, John. The first photo, though, truly captures my imagination. It conjures that sense of all the light (and warmth) being sucked from the planet. A time for hunkering down somewhere cosy and telling old tales.

    Reply

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