Cold Mountain Road #15162

The Story

A mountain road lined with trees covered in new white snow leads off around a curve and into the distance making a beautiful winter scene. The snow had just come only hours before in the night. When morning arrived in the valley, I could see snow laying on the higher surrounding mountains. It was time to load the cameras and go have a look right away.

At the highest elevation, there was only a mile or so of road that looked like this. The rest of the road didn’t have any snow on the branches. There was just a few dozen feet of elevation difference, but enough to affect the lay and consistency of the delicate snow. Getting there early enough with a strong below-freezing bite in the air were two big factors, and a third was no wind blowing.

But why black and white for this picture? I had shot everything in color that morning but a few and wanted to make something a little different. And for dynamic contrast, black and white worked very well showing this natural beauty in a different way. I enjoy the long white fingers of the horizontal branches that were made a little stronger. I also enjoy the vertical tree trunks that became a little darker making their varying shapes a little stronger too.

Try this scene in the usual way; for a very similar snow picture in color taken the same morning, have a look at The Road To You #15123.

Location: a winter morning in the mountains above Altoona, Blair County, Pennsylvania. Picture and story © Andrew Dierks