words and photos by Scot Zimmerman
As someone who has lived at high elevations along the Wasatch Back off and on since 1968, I am very concerned about no snow. For once, I was ready. I pruned, I cleaned out rain gutters, I put the snow shovels by the door, I bought ice melt, and still there is no snow.
I would have volunteered to do a raucous snow dance, but the only fleeting admiration my dancing has ever brought was for my disco moves, and I can’t see the skies rewarding me with snow for those. Plus, I only bring out my disco moves for family weddings.
Instead, I am offering up photos made in the snows of winter. The photos show our love for cold weather and the white landscape, including the Park City must-have firepit.
Some of my favorite winter architectural shots are of cabins, like the preceding one and the shot that follows, both located in Wolf Creek.
Contemporary architecture looks dramatic in the snow, as well. Scott Jaffa loved the look of one his White Pine Canyon homes in the snow, and we took this photo during the big snows of last winter.
There are some challenges to winter snow shots. One is technical. Digital cameras do not like being cold. I generally carry my camera inside my coat and try to set up and get the picture fast. I am old school about footprints in the snow, too, having begun in film. So even though I can now take footprints out during post, it’s a challenge for me to plan my routes so that I don’t tread up the snow. As I illustrate with the final two photos of Taliesin, Wisconsin, the photographer can get cold, as well.
I took these photos on film, and I think it would have been too cold for a digital camera. There’s cold, and there’s Wisconsin winter cold. Taking photos of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture is so exciting to me that at the time the cold didn’t register. It hit when I loaded the car and made the 40-minute drive back to my lodgings, and the heater could not blow enough hot air to warm me up.
We’re all ready. Let it snow. If these photos don’t encourage a few good blanketing cold storms, I may have to reconsider bringing out my disco moves.
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