1 January 2024

New Year snow

Four days at the start of the year, in deep snow: pink light, a yellow house, pines lit copper, and a frost that turned everything two colours at once.

The first four days of the year, all in the same few fields. The sun never got above the treeline, so the useful light arrived late and left early, and most of the colour came from what it caught on the way past: frost, bark, a wall.

Each day had its own shape. Snow and a band of pink over the field, then a morning and an afternoon that barely met, then a walk into the pines with the sun going sideways, and finally an hour of orange and blue that the cold had made possible.

Nothing here is far from anything else. That is the point of the set: one place, four days, and the light doing something different every time.

1 January — under the frost

No wind and no sun, only an even blue that made the frost look thicker than it was. The track had one set of prints on it, going away.

An untouched snowfield ringed by frosted trees, a low red cabin at the right under a flat blue dusk sky. — The empty field 11 mm · f/2 · 1/60s · ISO 200

A person in dark clothes walking away along a trodden snow track between frosted trees, low buildings on the right. — The one set of prints 11 mm · f/2 · 1/60s · ISO 200

Spruce branches completely coated in white hoar frost against a pale blue sky, a snow-covered track below. — Frost on the spruce 10 mm · f/2 · 1/60s · ISO 400

1 January — the light turns

Then the cloud thinned along the horizon and the afternoon changed colour in a few minutes: pink over the field, then yellow on the wall of the house, then blue enough by four that the fairy lights did all the work.

A wide snow-covered field with a band of pink and orange sky above a dark treeline, the corner of a wooden house at the right. — Snowfield at dusk 15 mm · f/2.5 · 1/100s · ISO 160

A pale yellow timber house with a chimney and a snow-covered roof, standing alone in deep snow under a blue dusk sky. — The yellow house 18 mm · f/2.5 · 1/100s · ISO 320

A snow-covered polytunnel with a bare tree hung with warm fairy lights in front of it, under a deep blue evening sky. — Lights by the greenhouse 9 mm · f/1.8 · 1/80s · ISO 250

2 January — first and last light

In January the useful light is about five hours long, and it arrives and leaves as a band along the horizon rather than as a sunrise or a sunset. At ten it was a sliver behind the trees; by three it had gone entirely, and the only light left on the street was strung through the birches.

Bare trees and a snowy slope in silhouette beneath a narrow band of orange sky, a track curving away in the foreground. — First light 37 mm · f/2.8 · 1/80s · ISO 200

A row of bare birch trees wrapped in warm fairy lights at blue dusk, seen past a window frame and a roof overhang. — Birches with lights 11 mm · f/2 · 1/80s · ISO 125

3 January — the pines

At this time of year the sun travels along the treeline instead of over it, so only what stands above the snow catches it. Spruce first, with the snow still sitting on the branches in clumps, then an old pine whose bare bark the low sun turned the colour of copper.

Snow-laden spruce tops catching low orange sun against a deep blue sky. — Spruce tops 14 mm · f/2.2 · 1/1000s · ISO 125

A tall pine with a bare orange-lit trunk and heavy snow along its branches, against a clear blue sky. — The old pine 9 mm · f/1.8 · 1/640s · ISO 125

Close on the pine trunk, its bark orange in the low sun, with snow thick on the branches beyond it. — Copper bark 19 mm · f/2.5 · 1/320s · ISO 125

The pine’s branches arcing across the frame, bark orange where the sun reaches it and snow banked on the upper sides. — Branches over snow 19 mm · f/2.5 · 1/400s · ISO 125

3 January — the field and the barn

Out of the trees the light had room again: a red barn wall, an open snowfield with the sunset low along the treeline, and last of all the sun between the trunks.

A red timber barn with a deep snow-covered roof, a trodden track running past it towards frosted trees. — The barn 9 mm · f/1.8 · 1/1000s · ISO 125

An open snowfield below a dark treeline, a band of orange sunset along the horizon and long blue shadows across the snow. — Field at sundown 9 mm · f/1.8 · 1/2000s · ISO 125

The sun low behind pine trunks, flaring orange between them and throwing long shadows across the snow. — Sun through the trunks 24 mm · f/2.8 · 1/500s · ISO 125

4 January — the cold hour

An hour when the light turns everything two colours at once: orange where the sun reaches, deep blue everywhere it does not. The colder it gets, the wider that gap.

A group of frost-covered trees standing in a snowfield, their tops catching orange light against a clear blue sky. — Warm frost 20 mm · f/2.8 · 1/800s · ISO 125

Snow-laden spruce and birch trees lit warm orange by a low sun, deep blue shadows on the snow beneath them. — Frost and low sun 10 mm · f/2.2 · 1/500s · ISO 125

A single frosted birch glowing orange against a blue sky, its shadow long across the snow. — Birch in the light 9 mm · f/2.2 · 1/1000s · ISO 125

A small red house with a snow-covered roof lit by warm sun, standing in blue-shadowed snow beneath frosted trees. — Red house, blue snow 15 mm · f/2.5 · 1/800s · ISO 125

19 photographs · Click a photograph to open it full screen. · 6 sections