Wind Scarred
Hello, and welcome back!
First things first:
I’ve selected my “best of 2025”, if you want to review, take a peek here . Just speaking from the heart, I think it’s as good a year as I’ve ever had, but I’ve noticed that the dry spells were still as frequent as prior years. This is something I didn’t expect now that I’m “retired”, which makes for an interesting conundrum to work through.
Okay, with that out of the way: they say bad weather makes good photos, and we had enough bad weather and intense wind through December to give a lot of opportunities.
Grand Beach
It was a day of scouring wind, which made for three shots: the lake itself was a jumble of ice, where hard freezes and a strong west wind had pushed up this “shark’s fin”; I spotted a coyote trying to get around me by venturing way out on the ice, it just looks so tiny in that landscape; and towards the end of the day the thin clouds pulled back: the wind had scraped away all the snow, only leaving this feather behind frozen in the icy sand.
(just a note that you can click on each photo which should bring up a larger view)
Blizzard Morning
Next up was a blizzard. I got up early and managed to catch some of it before dawn:
It was quite thrilling to be out in it, and a lot of work, as the wind created alternating patches of clear sidewalk and massive snow dunes to wade through. I expect those trying to get to work didn’t find it quite as “thrilling”, and I don’t think anyone tried to wash their car that morning…
Later as the light improved, I found these lonely scenes:
Post Blizzard Afternoon
The day wasn’t done with me yet. After the snow stopped, the north wind increased, and eventually the bright sun emerged. I drove around the edges of the city and beyond, avoiding the main roads. The blowing snow created a haze over the land, and instant drifts on the east-west roads:
This led to my favourite (title) shot:
I confess like the colour version as well, the colours were very muted with all the blowing snow. My only quibble is that I think it makes the distant baseball diamond cage stand out more. I could remove this with “AI” tools, but that crosses a line I’m not interested in going over.
One final from that day from outside the city:
Sun blasted
I took quick road trip north of the city, and a long trudge over a frozen marsh to the edge of East Shoal Lake. There is a small copse of trees (centre image) which gives some good shelter from the wind, and I’ve been thinking of hauling a tent out there so I can be there at dawn. I just have to figure out a constructive (and warm!) way to spend the time between sundown (4:30pm) and sunrise (8am)…
Spooky Snow
Another morning of snow, predawn, I’ve never walked past the cemetery on this sidewalk, so it was a new, kind of spooky, view for me:
Later I tried to catch a crow in flight, panning at a slow shutter speed, I kind of like the “racing stripes” of the building it was passing in front of:
Frost
Finally, a trio of frosty images:
I woke the sleeping deer, but since it figured I wasn’t a threat, it kept drifting into a doze. The building is part of Assiniboine Park. I find it a handsome building, and though this is a pretty standard—aka boring—composition, I really liked the light as it was just before sundown. Lastly, really enjoyed skiing at Birds Hill Park through the frost:
Thanks for reading, hope you have a good year in 2026!