No, I have not picked up the brushes again as the title of this post may imply. This expression is more an ethereal feeling I get when working with photographs and modifying their quality, contrast, color and composition. Of course all of the above begins when one decides to capture the image with the camera. The depth, shape, size, density, temperature & general environment of the subject all come into play as the eye
"sees" the composition taking shape. But for myself and a number of other photographers creating the final stage of the image may be a process of more complicated steps through darkroom applications or the digital photoshop. As mentioned in other postings, the photograph may be with me in various stages of it's raw form or transition edits for quite sometime before I find a way to express visually what I'm really seeing and 'feeling' in the image. Here are a set of winter images taken this January of 2010 that have avoided the cutting room floor and surfaced with enough expression to be featured here. Hope you enjoy...
Image #1 Cottonwoods in Winter's Mist... It's been a warmish January here in the Kettle River Valley. Much of the sparse snow we received has melted, the rest turning to glacierial ice along the river banks. These cottonwoods, standing in a light morning mist were covered in hoar frost from the moist airs rising off the river's surface. In this rendered image there is a cold, dark feeling to the brown boles of these silent trees.
#2 entitled: Mount Bonaparte, Above the Clouds, is another wintry play of light and the environment. I caught a glimpse of the mountain as the clouds briefly parted one morning. Almost before I had positioned myself and captured three shots the clouds returned and totally blocked out the view of the mountain. I was lucky to get this image. While I liked the photograph what I really experienced watching the changes of light on the mountain are captured in this rendered. A winter's morning in the highlands.
Pines in Snowfall; image #3 is a photograph taken just off my backyard during a snowy morning. I live within the ponderosa pines. Much of the wood & logs of my home are of various pines. And I am an admirer of these beautiful trees. Pines in the winter occupy a special place in my study of subject, shape & light. In this rendered image of the pines and snowfall I can almost hear the whispering sounds of the flakes falling through the pine needles before settling deep & white upon the ground.
Image #4 Snowy Road, Kettle River; was captured at the end of an overnight snowfall. The river was still predominantly frozen over and except for the tracks left behind my vehicle the road was untouched that morning.
Possibly the most photographed waterfalls of Washington State, Snoqualmie Falls is the 5th photo of this series. While there is no snow or ice in this image it is indeed winter. January at the falls with a recent snow melt swelling the river. The upper edges of this gorge, where we are standing, is constantly in the mists rising up from the pool below this 268 vertical foot drop of water.
And I'll close this series with a colorful photograph; I call this one Winter Cabbage, Salish Lodge. The Salish Lodge over looks Snoqualmie Falls and, of course, it is in such a mild temperate zone that this cabbage was in full color in January.
Thanks for stopping and having a look. Remember if you'd like to see a bigger version of any of the above images you can click in it. You have my permission to right click and save the image to your computer as long as it is not used promotionally or commercially or published in any other way.
Often this time of year the late winter / early spring storms push off the Pacific Ocean, over the Cascade Mountain Range and deliver more layers of snow into the high country as seen here with a March snowstorm just breaking over the Kettle River Range. 
