Winter has some of the best light, if you can mitigate the cold and the snow to reach it. I bundle up in my old ski jacket from the early 2000s – well out of style, but still plenty warm, with an assortment of hats and gloves, and a pair of clunky snow boots. Even paired with blue jeans, it’s enough to keep me warm for a couple of hours in most conditions, especially if I keep moving.
I trekked out into the Eales Preserve just ahead of sunset and wound my way up the mountainside along the Blueberry trail, hoping to catch some warm sunset light on the couple of inches of snow we had at the time. And when that light faded, there was a brief window to capture the cold, blue twilight.
Twilight is some of my favorite light, even more so than sunrise or sunset itself. It lacks the drama, but it’s beauty runs deep and subtle, with a wash of cool tones and almost imperceptible shadows. And it’s brief, lasting mere minutes as night falls and photography becomes impossible without a tripod.
My timing was on point, with twilight hitting the mountain as I was minutes from the parking lot. (There’s no real risk of losing the trail in the dark, but I’d still rather avoid stumbling about the barrens at night!) The first photo is my favorite of the two, capturing the trail while the snow and the sky share the same blue cast.
The second photo is a somewhat less aesthetic landscape, showing the old roads that were cut into the barrens before the Nature Conservancy was able to save it. But I still liked the deepening blues, and the lines of the trails against the organics of nature.