The Light of Winter
Usually I don’t like the winter. It’s cold outside, I am cold, I can’t wear my favorite clothing (hawaii-shirts and flip-flops), I have to dig out the car whenever I want to drive it, then it’s cold in the car and the snow-clots on my trouser legs melt and run into my socks while driving and then I’m cold again.
Still, when I think I can’t take it anymore, it snows again. Heavy flakes tumble in the air before resting on the ground, little by little covering up all the unpleasant details and the dirt, muffle harsh sounds and immerse the open land in innocence and tranquility — right before my window. In these moments of joy and inner peace I linger at the window, sipping my coffee. And then it strikes me: “I gotta take some photos!”
But this year I refrain from taking the same stereotypic winter photos everybody shoots every year (with some exceptions, of course). I wait for a spark of inspiration. Imagination. Whatever. And this year it came in the subsiding dusk of yesterday’s evening when I got off the Autobahn.
There it was, the cell phone relay station with its two metal halide floodlights turned on. For absolutely no reason it illuminated divinely the surrounding field of pure, inviolate, foot-deep snow. Right between the freeway exit ramp and the autobahn itself was a glowing blue patch of no-man’s-land. I drove home to get tripod and camera to record this strange sensation, and I even dared to leave my tracks in the untouched snow, but kept a respectful distance when taking pictures.
When I came back home, there was the light from outside illuminating not only more powdery snow right before my window, but also my room from a very low angle. It never occurred to me, that when I would turn off the lights I would be rewarded with another artificial light source creating an odd, yet very interesting atmosphere. Click — I took another photo.
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Comments
Lisa (Feb 18, 2009)
hey bubu,
i like the second and the last picture best. nevertheless i’m so angry at the snow (because it’s been snowing for 4 days now) that i scream at it through the window while preparing my morning coffee. the sucker doesn’t deserve any better.
cheers