Today was a rare day for the current winter season. We had snow! While we only received about 3 inches after a long period of freezing rain, it was nice to see the landscape cloaked in fresh snow. Once the driving conditions improved, I ventured down a few of the small gravel roads around my home to some nearby, smaller tributaries of the Nottawasaga River (a large river that empties into Georgian Bay) to photograph some winter river details. Winter often presents us with challenges when we are out photographing and one such challenge is finding away to incorporate some colour into the scene. In the above image, while standing at the side of the road, my eye was drawn to the golden-toned grasses that were submerged in the river. In the image below I walked down beside the river to change my perspective for an alternate look. The blue colouration in this photograph was achieved by capturing the scene after the sun had dipped below the horizon on a relatively clear evening.
Below is one of the first images I photographed at this location. While driving down the road, the jagged river ice here grabbed my attention and I decided to stop and explore the potential possibilities at this scene. I used my Nikon 80-400mm lens to reach out across the fragile snow and ice-scape to photograph this interesting river ice. The river is about a foot and a half below the ice formations in this photo and appears very dark as a result. It has a black and white sort of feel to it that I like.
All images in this post were photographed with my Nikon 80-400mm lens, which is my favorite lens for intimate landscape work.





I love intimate shots like this. Very nice work Andrew!
Denise, thanks…I could shoot these types of images all day long…much appreciated.
Hi Andrew,
Love them all! That 80- to 400 lens really brings in your subjects. Im not even going out this weekend to shoot. Im burn’t out cleaning and sanding my thousand ft driveway. Getting tired of the cold weather. Looking to move to Mount Dora Florida. Have the house up for sale 10 acres. very private and lots of shooting space and setups.
Thanks very much Michael, I appreciate the support. Sounds like you have a nice set-up out there. Spring isn’t too far away:)
Some great intimate landscape shots Andrew! I like the first one the best with the contrast in colours between the cold snow and the vegetation in the river. Winter can be a challenging time of the year to shoot but I find a lot of the time exploring smaller area’s instead of looking for the grand landscape can yield beautiful results.
Thanks for stopping by Kyle. I appreciate the kind words. I couldn’t agree with you more about winter photography being challenging.