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Winter Photography

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Montana Windmill. © Jason Savage

This photo was taken just a few days back right after we had a whopper of storm roll through Montana, bringing a fair amount of snow and some much colder weather. The temperature when I took this was well below zero and not the most comfortable or convenient shooting conditions. But with the weather, comes great benefits. When rough weather comes, it usually lends interesting or dramatic touches to a scene. Because of the ice and mist hanging in the sky, the light and the sky added a nice touch to the frozen windmill.

That’s me trying to figure out how I can come up with enough money for a plane ticket to Hawaii…

Spring Snowstorm

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Montana State Capital

Montana State Capitol.© Jason Savage.

Just when we were getting comfortable and enjoying the nice spring weather-what should arrive? More snow! A major storm rolled in a few days ago and just hammered Montana. It snowed for around three days straight leaving well over a foot and half at our home in Helena and much more elsewhere across the state. There were reported six foot snow drifts up near Agusta and St. Mary reported over 60 inches in their backyard.

St Helena Cathedral

St. Helena Cathedral.© Jason Savage

I guess we’ll have to wait and see about May-hopefully it will be a little kinder.

Montana Mallards

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Mallard Landing.©Jason Savage

Well we’re almost there. Rounding that last corner down the homestretch straight out of winter. It’s so close, but yet so far away….

That’s at least how I felt last Sunday as I was getting pounded by a fierce early spring snowstorm. Boy was that cold!

I was heading to Freezeout Lake last Sunday but due to one nasty storm I didn’t quite make it. The roads and visibility were so bad, getting decent shots of snow geese would have been a pointless venture.

So I decided to pack it up and head back to Helena, where I spent most of the day freezing my butt off to get some shots of some Mallard ducks near town.

Mallard Snowstorm.©Jason Savage

With adverse weather conditions, sometimes it’s much easier to spend the day admiring it from behind a window in your warm home, rather than embracing the drudgery. But with all adversity, there always seems to be a silver lining. Weather included.

I find more often than not that the extreme conditions can not only ad a dramatic mood to your image, but it can offer amazing backdrops and certain elements that you normally would never be able to capture in ideal conditions.

Wigeon Drake.©Jason Savage

With that being said, did I spend all day standing out in a wet heavy snowstorm for some of the aforementioned benefits added to my images. Well, maybe not, but any day out photographing Montana, beats sitting at home watching it out the window.