Five Ways to Find Beauty in Beastly Winter Weather

The past week here on the eastern coast of the U.S. has been a smorgasbord of "bad" weather--fog as thick as pea soup (more like mushroom soup, based on the color), chilly rains, snow flurries, ice storms. It's enough to send a person into hibernation. And yet...it's a photographer's dream! When the weather is a drama queen--a diva to put even Mariah Carey to shame--it's the best time to seize the camera and get out there.

Although I often post-process my photographs (one of the things I'll be teaching in my upcoming photography e-course), the colors in the photo above are unaltered. It was the combination of thick morning fog and a gray sky that gave the ruby red leaves their super-saturated glow. And those shapes! I loved how the tiny leaves of the Barberry bush acted like little spoons for the droplets.

On a sunny day, you simply cannot get a view of a magical world turned upside-down inside a raindrop...

This snapshot of a tree reflected in a raindrop reminded me of a snowglobe. It was one of those happy accidents, discovering the inverted image of the tree inside the raindrop as I was clicking away.

Aside from experiencing winter through a camera lens (that's #1 on my list for finding beauty in beastly weather), here are four other ways to enjoy the season:

Experience winter through the words of a poet. I've always loved Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Seek out more poems about winter (like Winter-Time by Robert Louis Stevenson), or put your own poetic impressions to paper.

Experience winter through music. If you celebrate Christmas, carols are the obvious answer "when the weather outside is frightful." And it's hard to be a grump listening to The Nutcracker Suite or Vivaldi's Winter overture from The Four Seasons, this one set to a montage of famous winter paintings.

Experience winter by reading novels set in the season. Here's a fine list of books with a winter setting, although my first recommendation would be The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It contains one of my favorite winter scenes ever, when young Lucy pushes her way through the long fur coats in the wardrobe and is shocked to find the snowy wonderland of Narnia on the other side. Every time it seems like the whole wide world is glittering with ice crystals, my mind drifts back to Narnia.

Experience winter through the eyes of a child. Remember the excitement of a "snow day"? Children are bursting with positive energy in winter. Two mornings ago, after an ice storm during the night--each branch and every blade of grass encased in ice--my daughter ran to me squealing, "Mommy, the whole world is in disguise!" On snowy days, the first things that kids think of are snowmen, snow angels, snow igloos, and snowball fights. Why should there be an age limit attached to any of those things?

So, embrace the season as a child would, or try to see it through an artist's eyes and be inspired to create something beautiful out of it--anything from a snowman to a poem, a wintery song to a photograph of a bright red cardinal in the stark branches, with the backdrop of the crisp, white snow.

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Your turn: What's your favorite winter poem, song, novel, or painting? Please share in the Comments section below. If you are reading this post via email subscription or mobile device, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com from a computer to see the comments and leave one of your own. (Don't forget to click the box for subscribing to comments so you can follow the conversation.)

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SPECIAL NOTE: Some of the photographs featured in this post are available for sale as high-quality framed or unframed art prints in my web shop at Society6.com/JoyfullyGreen. I hope you'll visit it and treat yourself or somebody you love to a pretty picture! (Added perk: It also keeps this blog advertising-free.)

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