Looks like I caught the perfect weather yesterday for my first foray into winter photography. Today the sky is a milky gray monochrome filled with a constant supply of snow, now light, now heavy, subject to the whimsies of the lake effect. But yesterday was magical, a day of contrasts–of fantastic cloudscapes, resonant, deep blue skies, dancing snowflakes, and vanilla-colored curtains of distant snow showers gleaming in the slanting sun.

I’m not going to say much more about it. Instead, I’m going to let a few pictures tell the story. These were all shot southwest of Hastings, Michigan, near the Barry State Game Area.

Cloudscape — I’m captivated by the expressiveness of the clouds. And I love how they seem to follow the contours of the treeline like a penumbra.

Linescape — Winter strips the landscape down to its fundamental geometry, to tapestries of lines and angles. I’m so pleased with how this shot turned out. Not bad for a greenhorn, I think.

Transfiguration — The stump to the right of the backlit tree makes me think of Moses before the burning bush.

Old Drive — The Barry State Game Area is punctuated with the relics of old homesteads and farms that couldn”t quite make it in the sandy soil. I’m sure a house once stood here. All that’s left is the drive leading past the trees into an empty field.

My friend Kurt Hulst brought to my attention the fact that I don’t include many photos in my blogs. This is true. Part of the reason has had to do with my learning curve as a photographer. But I fancy that I’ve improved quite a bit since I first bought my Rebel XTi in the spring; the rest of the matter is simply that I’ve limited myself regarding this blog to storm chasing and sax playing.

Now, storms come when they come, and unless global warming accelerates remarkably, I expect it’ll be a while before we see anything resembling springtime weather. As for the sax, when I”m at a club, it’s usually to play, not to photograph.

So those are my excuses. But I think maybe I need to broaden my options a bit for the sake of adding a little color to this blog. Otherwise, I face three months–four, really–with little to say, weatherwise, other than, “Dang, I wish the spring would get here.” And all that time, the winter has a beauty and interest of its own, and photo opportunities I hadn”t imagined.

Until today, that is, when I set out to photograph my first snowy landscape of the year. I drove out to some of my favorite backroads in Barry County, out near my church west of Hastings. There, in the glacial hills near the Barry State Game Area, the landscape is particularly photogenic, and I was not disappointed in what I found.

Here is one photo. There are others, but this will do for now.

Kurt, this one’s for you!