It’s cold and snowy on Vancouver Island this week for which we can blame the polar vortex. I’m reminded of the cold snap that we had in Toronto, Ontario last year in January. For a few days mercury dipped well below -20 Celsius, and the snow had that special squeak which tells you that it’s bitterly cold and hurts your teeth as you walk. One cannot let the weather bring photography to a halt as it’s usually the most adverse conditions that produce the most unique images. That day, I bundled up in a parka and snow pants and headed for a winter photo shoot in a dog park. I photographed Lucky, a year-old Welsh Corgi Pembroke.
Overnight we had gotten a foot, if not more, of powdery snow which is a lot for a corgi who travels low to the ground. His short legs were barely tall enough to keep his head above the snow and he whipped up a cloud of snow as he ran.
I wanted the images to show that Lucky was almost in trouble in deep, fluffy snow. I didn’t want the snow to turn into white nothingness so I made sure my camera didn’t overexpose the snow. While it almost looks pretty white everywhere, one can still see see the dents and the dusty snow he whipped up as he ran. This method that photographers call “exposing to the right/ for the highlights” makes all the colors turn out nicely. Even the white on the dog is different from the white of the snow.
That wintry day produced wonderfully happy images that make one laugh out loud. Lucky’s owners picked three of them and created a framed wall art collage to decorate their home. Lucky’s exuberant youthful puppy energy is sure to leap off their walls and cheer them up every time they walk by.
P.S. I named one of the images (below) as “Snowbound Corgi” and submitted it to Animal Image Makers’ (AIM) international photography competition held in Minneapolis, Minnesota in April 2019. It was awarded 82 points, earning a merit. That made me very happy!
As the snow piles up on the ground here in Comox Valley, imagine that you are Lucky and have fun.
