SAY CHEESE

I have always liked snow, in the air and on the ground. Something about snow crunching under my feet and the way winter’s earthy hughes retreat under a pristine, white blanket that gives me peace. Snow that piles up on my sidewalk and driveway can be a nuisance but it’s a small price to pay. I’m lucky, my driveway slopes down to the street and I can push it down to the curb: then it’s a short throw into a heap, out of the way.  I usually have to go to Michigan to get my snow ration for the winter but Kansas City just got its first meaningful snow in several years. I’m getting too old or too lazy maybe; only cleaned off one side of the driveway and a narrow path from the stoop across the patio. 

A few years ago I got the idea of photographing trees throughout the year for a calendar. But snow was hard to find and at least one winter scene should have snow. There is a gorgeous tree that I have been admiring for years, up north of the river. It’s on a Seminary campus with easy access. I kept thinking it would make a great winter study but without snow, it’s just another naked tree. Then, on Thursday, we got more snow than we wanted. In the first hour it snowed 6” and then tapered off for the rest of the day. We got over a foot of snow on the ground and for all practical purposes, Kansas City shut down. 

Yesterday, Friday, I started working my way north. Side streets were still clogged but I made it to my morning, coffee group and then through the city, across the river. After parking in the Salvation Army’s lot, I had to walk in the street as the outside lane in both directions was only half clear and the berm along the curb was over waist deep. With camera safe inside its case, I rolled across the snow and struggled to get my feet under me. I knew it would be deep and I’ve bucked deep snow before but that was when I was still leaping tall buildings racing locomotives. 

There was a man with his little kids, sledding on the hillside between me and the handsome Sycamore. I finally got to the right spot, with good light and background; changed lens’s and took a few shots. The light was so bright, my eyes so constricted, I couldn’t see the image on the screen. The man and his kids had moved out of the way and I moved down hill to a spot I thought would offer the best view. More photographs; all I could think of was the disappointment I would feel if I didn’t get at least one terrific shot. The long drive and bucking snow, struggling up hill in waist deep stuff; it was incumbent on me to just keep taking shots, all angles, near and far. Getting back to the car wasn’t any easier but it was down hill. I was covered with snow and inside the car it began to melt. 

I dried out in a local grocery store and had to hurry back across town to make an appointment at the Apple Computer Store. I down loaded from camera to computer, culled through nearly a hundred photos and kept nine. One of the nine will have to be good enough. I don’t know when I’ll get another chance like that.