Jack Frost

Being a prairie-born Canadian it's a strange thing to be less than enthusiastic about winter. Particularly when almost half our time is spent dealing with The White Stuff. That said, there are some things I truly love about this season. And hoar frost on a crisp, clear morning ranks high on that list. Hoar frost is a tenuous thing. Too much warmth, too much sun, too much wind and it starts to flake off. But on this particular morning (following an unseasonably warm day) conditions were perfect and I just had to capture this after looking out my window.


Crisp, clean, pure. Ideally the sky would have been totally blue but there were some fine wisps of clouds up there. I experimented with this as a black and white where the contrast between the frost-covered limbs and a dark sky is very compelling. But ultimately I settled on the color version as it's the frost against the blue that really gets me. This may be reborn in B&W - who knows. As is this makes for a beautiful print on Epson's amazing Exhibition Fiber paper (a standout not only for its texture, feel, and unreal dynamic range but importantly for this picture its extreme bright whiteness).