Thursday, February 12, 2009

Wintertime


The recent storm transformed our mountains into this frosty snow confection -- and graced us with a comfortable temperature of around 70 degrees in the city. Sometimes mother nature is such a grand old show off, isn't she?

15 comments:

Sharon said...

I couldn't agree more! Beautiful shot!

Yakpate said...

I would like to have a card made up featuring this shot, and the caption, "This is why I will always live in California." I will hand out one of the cards whenever I am asked, "Why don't you move someplace where the cost of living is lower?"

Anonymous said...

We missed the 70 degrees up in tham thar hills. But you sure caught the mountains on a good day.

barbra said...

As I was driving around that day (Tuesday, I think), I saw the mountains and seriously thought "I hope Laurie is up in Monterey Hills taking a picture of this!"

barbra said...

As I was driving around that day (Tuesday, I think), I saw the mountains and seriously thought "I hope Laurie is up in Monterey Hills taking a picture of this!"

Anonymous said...

How do you get those candy colors? you must do something other then point and shoot. Even your shadows have details.

Wayne said...

Not another #@#&! snowy mountain shot!

The weather gadget says it 45º this morning.

Hmmmm?

Diederick Wijmans said...

That is a beautiful shot, Laurie!!
We are shivering over here. A lot of snow in northern Spain (Barcelona), and also more snow and cold weather expected over here in northern Italy. Spring will arrive...Spring will arrive...Spring...

Anonymous said...

Always a nice shot on Via del Rey coming over the hill. Mt Wilson and that whole range filled with snow is beautiful---especially since you can actually SEE it!

I love the contrast of the colors, plus the varying depths of the shot!

Judy Williams said...

You definitely don't appreciate the majesty until you click on it and let that beautiful image fill your screen. Like a dusting of confectioner's sugar!!!

Margaret said...

I saw that and thought "that looks like Monterey Hills," and lo and behold, it was! But here's a helpful hint: be sure to turn your wheels to the curb when parking up there or you're sure to get a ticket from one of South Pasadena's over zealous parking enforcement officers.

Petrea Burchard said...

Must click on this one. Must.

Warmer in the South of Pasadena, apparently!

Laurie Allee said...

Well, it's certainly not 70 degrees now! But it tipped barely over 69 yesterday when I took this. With all that sun, it felt even warmer. Now... we're heading toward more rain. (And more snow for them thar hills!)

Dixie Jane said...

Mother nature has been known to be a show-off here in Texas also. In the Springtime when fields of blue-bonnets explode into a sea of color I am enchanteed. But then there are times she shows a really tacky, almost demonic side. That's when I want to escape to California. Thanks for a scene that beats the most scrumptious baked Alaska or whipped cream atop a sundae. Real mountains with more than a deft sprinkling of confectioners snow. Really beautiful.

Laurie Allee said...

Hi all,

Thanks for the great input! Margaret, I always park with those wheels in... I have already gotten two parking tickets in only a year in South Pas. Gulp! (But my tickets were for leaving my car parked in front of my house overnight. This transplanted West sider had a hard time remembering the no cars overnight law.)

Pasadena Adjacent, I only push contrast or increase color saturation when I edit my photos. I shot this on the color chrome setting -- a nifty setting Fuji cameras offer that I find to be the equivalent of a Tiffen enhancing filter on a film camera. In this particular shot I just used the color chrome setting, put the ISO at 100 and I think this f stop was 5.6 with a fast exposure. I always mess around with settings when I shoot, and almost never use an auto setting unless I want to grab something fast. I have so much to learn about how the digital sensor differs from film, and how it's the same -- I like to play around with as many variables as I can. I slightly increased the contrast in this when I edited, to bring out some of those shadows. So far I've only edited my pictures in the same way I would have used filters or a darkroom in film photos.

Thanks for being here, folks. Until tomorrow...