Snow Blues

        On February 28, 2005, we had our last significant snow of the season here on Cape Cod. This was to be the final curtain of a spectacular winter performance by mother nature.
        Two days after Christmas, 2004, we got buried by a quick moving nor’easter that struck at night. I went out four-wheeling with a few friends and took hundreds of pictures the next day. Then, in January of 2005, the Snow Gods blessed us with one of the biggest storms ever on the cape. For days, I was in nirvana. Now, here we were at the end of February, about to get dumped on again.
        This final storm was originally predicted to give us mostly rain. Luckily, it shifted course to the south just enough to allow the cold air that had been sitting here all week to stay in place. Arriving late at night, I readied my cameras and prepared to seize the moment one last time, as major storms in March down here are very rare.
        I was out until about four in the morning, when I called it quits because I had a client to train in about three hours and didn’t want to show up with no sleep. But I would have stayed up all night if I could have, watching the light of day slowly illuminate the white landscape.
        Like an oil painting in the dark that still radiates it’s beauty, snowscapes at night create an atmosphere and a presence that’s vastly different from those of the day. At night, any ambient light from the sky is reflected and augmented by the snow. Man made light, brighter and more stark than nature’s subtle glow, creates other worldly shadows and contrasts that can’t be created any other way.
        At night or in the day, snow, like money, changes everything.