Cradled Clearing

I first noticed this group of trees about 7 months ago and they were the subject of the first photo I posted on NPN. I wanted to shoot them in the winter and I made it out there last Sunday while it was still snowing.

I've always loved winter scenes. I wanted a bright snowy day where I could try to capture the snow blowing sideways across the scene.

For me, this group of oaks are all about the central clearing that they protect wrapping their limbs around. Its a safe haven in the storm.

I didn't do too much to this: lightroom adjusts, nik silver efx and photoshop for dodge/burn and manual vignette. Although the image has an almost sketched feel because of the snow blowing across it, I didn't use any filters...there was a good amount of snow blowing sideways.

a7r, 70-200 @ 70mm, iso 100, f18, 1/6 sec

Probably used a 160 led light to try and light the near flying snow...I think I used it on my first 2 shots of the day of which this is one and couldn't see any affect in the lcd so put it away. Later shots didn't have the same feel so maybe it worked after all. More experimenting will occur!

Thanks for your comments!