I visited Newport News Park again today, the weather was wet and gray which makes for a challenging time. I pushed my camera and lens through my rain coat so that it would be protected from the rain. Towards the end of the short rainy walk a herd of deer appeared and I did my best to stalk them for a good shot.
Today was another cold day. Sometime this morning it started to snow; big, fluffy, soft, white snow flakes fell from the sky, of course by the time I was dressed the soft white snow had turned into icy small hard snow being repelled by the strong winds. I was able to go out with a lady called Julie, her Husband is also military and we both share the pasion for photography. So together we braved the cold howling winds and ice flakes.
I protected my camera with a home made weatherproof cover made from ziplock bags, you can see something similar to what I used in the photo adicts link section to the right. The cover did a good job at keeping everything safe and dry.
Snow is not a common sight here on the southeast side of Virginia, even in the winter months it seems we get a few frosts and occasionally a very thin sprinkling of snow. 2010 started off differently though, we had some very very cold winter mornings.
The first Sunday of the year brought a beautiful sunrise at Buckroe Beach in Hampton. the sky was lit up with beautiful oranges and pinks. The colours of the sky were the only warmth available that morning. the wind was howling and the sand was whipping about my feet as I tried to set up my shots with out getting frost bite on my fingers. It wasn’t until I moved closer to the sea that I realized that the surf was frozen.
The next couple of weeks stayed cold and we had a light dusting of snow, the majority of the snow melted the same day it fell, but parts of the snow that were shaded from the suns rays stayed with us for a while.
As January moved on so did the cold weather, the day’s would start off chilly but rapidly warm up, there were days where I was able to go out with out wearing a jacket. I spent one Sunny hour walking around Historic Yorktown, It was mostly cloudy that day, but luck would have it that the sum came out while I walked and I was lucky enoughto see some blue sky. The sun brought with it a warmth that had be removing my jacket and driving with the windows down, I love those kind of days. Winter warmth comes with no humidity, and humidity is something that during the summer I can’t stand.
At the beginning of this week there was a rumor was that we would see snow at the weekend. I kept an ear to the forecast and on Thursday night they were warning of a significant snow storm that ‘may’ hit the east coast. the weatherman kept repeating while it looked like the storm would hit us it, there was still a chance that it may not. Friday the forecast became more definite and the local government started to make the preparations in case the storm hit.
This morning sometime in the early hours while I was sound asleep the storm hit. When I woke I could hear the wind howling as I lay in bed, in between the gusts of winds I could hear the muffled silence that you only ever get when there is snow on the ground. The wind had caused the snow to drift up against buildings, but it wasn’t very deep, I measured it at mid day and it was two inches, by four o’clock it was only at three and a half inches on the path that was outside my front door. In less sheltered are’s and the mini snow drifts that are forming I think the snow is more like five or more inches deep.
I did brave the cold weather for a short fifteen minute walk, it was still snowing so I weather proofed my camera with some duct tape and ziplock bags (similar idea here made by a photog friend) I walked out to the main road and saw the snow plows at work, I took a few shots of the snow and then went back to my home to warm back up.
The Virginia Living Museum in Newport News has a wide verity of creatures, including this fish.
Theme: WordPress Classic. Blog at WordPress.com.
