Trees in the winter
by Kristel Schneider

” Snow, chaos and trees”

Comparing earlier winters I experienced in the Auvergne, I can say this year was mild so far.  Last year I bought my own set of snow rackets but because of the lack of snow in my area I  decided yesterday  to look for some white powder higher up in the mountains.

Kristel by Cyril Coudert

Readers who visit this blog more often know how much I love trees and one of the things I always wanted to do was walking on snow rackets in the forest. So together with photographer Cyril Coudert (partner from Massifs Centraux) I planned a photo day in the Sancy area (Auvergne, France).

Kristel by Cyril Coudert

Destination:  Vallée de la Fontaine Salée | Chastreix-Sancy  (1299m), the weather forecast was not that great but in the mountains it can change very fast so we gave it a try. Knowing that I had to walk for the first time on these snow rackets I decided to empty my camera bag. Camera body and only two lenses, the canon 24-105 and the canon 300 mm and my lunchbox + tripod.  Already missing my my 70-200mm lens, my favorite  ‘brick’ .
After walking for a while I was so happy with my earlier decision (LOL).

The tree branches had just enough snow to give it that little extra you like to see in your images. The view leaves gave a little touch of color in the brown/grey scenery.
The challenge was to find a nice  composition amongst the chaos.

Hopefully next month the snow will return so that I can experiment some more in the winter forest. For more images click here