Snow in November

Snow? Yes!

For the latest entry in the Driveway Views series, here is something completely different. Do not adjust the color settings on your monitor or phone. Yes, much of the photo is supposed to be white. That is because we got snow. In November. As in the month before December. The middle of fall. Seriously.

The news reports indicate that is the earliest that our area has gotten snow since 1951. That is quite a long time. And if you did not know, we live in an area that does not get all that much snow to begin with. Maybe one snow a winter season, maybe two on rare occasions. But not usually in November.

Fortunately, it was not enough snow to cause too many serious problems for those of us who are not used to such things. The roads, and particularly the bridges, were a little slippery in certain places, but overall it was not a big problem for most people. We made it home in the usual amount of time.

The snow did not start falling until the middle of the day, so that did not affect most schools. A few closed early, several others canceled their after-school activities. Several Wednesday evening church services were canceled as well, including ours.

But most of that was out of an abundance of caution more than anything else. The roads did not get much worse overnight. And most schools were open the next day. The rural schools out by where we live were closed, but the roads that I drove on were just fine.

So except for an unexpected evening at home, there were not any big changes for us. And we were okay with that. Except maybe for Jaylin, who had hoped to wake up the next day to find out that school was called off. Maybe next time.

Because I knew it would not last, I went outside with my camera for a few minutes to get some snow photos. Because around here you never know how long it may be before that happens again.

More Photos

Here are a few more of the photos that I took.

I liked the look of our truck in the snow here. But I was also thankful for parking our cars in the garage and not having to scrape off the snow before we went to work.

As you can see, the snow was not all that deep. It just barely covered the grass, and in fact did not even cover all of the grass. But I liked the look of the grass sticking up through the snow here.

The snow did cover the leaves of our azalea bushes. But the azaleas had already gone dormant for the winter anyway, so they were not greatly affected. Maybe it is because we don’t get much snow around here, but I always think this looks neat.

One more view of the snow on the grass, with some footprints through the snow, and the barn and tractor in the background. I had a difficult time deciding if I liked this one or the one of just the grass better. So I decided to share them both. That way, you can choose. I like the “farm life” look of this one, personally.

All the Seasons

In just the past few weeks, we have had at least three seasons in a short amount of time. The warm temperatures stayed around for a while, followed by a couple of weeks of fall, and now this snow. And then by the weekend the temperatures will be back up around 60 degrees, or so they say.

That makes it difficult to know what type of jacket to wear each day. Or maybe a heavier coat than just a jacket is required. Or maybe by the afternoon you don’t even need your jacket. Sometimes I think God just likes to keep us guessing!

Bible Verse

Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding. - Psalm 148:7-8

About the Photos

As I mentioned above, these were just some quick shots in the morning after the snow had fallen the night before. After feeding the horses, I went in the house and got my camera while I still had my coat and warm clothes on.

I knew I wanted to get the photo looking down the driveway, but for the others I just walked around for a few minutes, shooting what looked interesting.

For the driveway photo, I set the aperture at f/5.6 to have a more general focus. But then for all the others I opened the aperture up to f/3.5 to get a tighter focus on the details along with some bokeh on the background.

These received just some minimal processing, because snow already looks really good to begin with, after all.

Photos: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Lens
Date: November 15, 2018
Location: Home, Williston, Tennessee