Merrie Melody |

Yesterday morning as I drove by our sledding hill, I decided that I really should take a picture of it one of these days; later in the morning I decided that there was no better time than the present!

The sun was still mostly behind the eastern mountain when I got started, and then all at once it popped out…just in time to be covered up by a cloud.

I took advantage of that one minute of sunlight though, and captured the sunlight playing in the snow.

Because I have two pictures that are relatively the same except one has the minute-long-sunlight, I thought I’d show them both to you to prove that the lighting will make all the difference in the presentation of your subject.

This one was with the sun behind the mountain/cloud:

And this one had the sunlight:

Even the picture without the sunlight looks good, but the one with the sunlight makes the scene look more playful and sets the stage for the mood I was looking for in shooting our sledding hill. Also, if you look closer, you’ll notice that the second pic that has the sunlight also looks more 3-d than the other one, since light areas and shadowed areas add depth.

Now there is another picture that I also want to share today. It had just the mood I wanted to capture, since there are no bright, happy places:

This is how I think of winter: greys, blues, and whites. I like the moodiness of winter, and especially the moodiness of the mountains in winter. So for this picture, since I’m trying to convey that moodiness to my viewers, the lack of happy sunshine is a good thing.

Lighting will truly enhance a scene, whether you want your picture to show the happy, sunlit hills that you and your kids play on, or the moody, gloomy mountains on a grey winter’s day.

Have a wonderful day,