Cambridge in the snow (Part 2)
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In Part 1 I shared a video taken during the snowy days Cambridge saw early in February this year. In this post I’ll get back to what I do better – photography.
The snow started on a Sunday evening and as I hit the sack that day I planned to wake up early (something that I find pretty hard to do) and head into town to take some photos. It was a work day, so I needed to start early in order to get in to work at a respectable time.
I decided to spend my limited time around the Cambridge backs, mainly in Trinity and King’s colleges. I started out for King’s college and stopped by what is possibly my favourite grave. It’s a small tomb under a beautiful tree by the side of St Mary’s Chapel.
I’ve photographed this lovely scene multiple times (see here and here) and this time it was more lovely than ever. I’m not too thrilled with this shot and feel like I could have done it better had I not been too preoccupied with time.
After a few minutes around the chapel (and a few frames that didn’t make the cut) I entered King’s College. There were many people milling about the entrance with cameras and a few annoyed students trying to get to lectures through both the tourists and snow. Despite the ugly scaffolding that surrounds King’s Chapel, the fields and rooftops looked lovely in their new costume of white.
Snow was falling at a rate now, and I began to get a bit wetter than I had anticipated. My camera was all but dripping with water and I was concerned that perhaps it was getting a little too exposed. I regretted not bringing my camera bag along with me.
From King’s I moved on to Trinity College after a brief stop at the Clare College Tree which didn’t look as beautiful as I’d hoped. Trinity on the other hand was really lovely and greeted me with Great Court drenched in white
Walking over the bridge towards Queen’s street offered a lovely view of the Trinity Hall bridge with a good summary of all that is Cambridge: punts, the river, ducks and cyclists.
Just as I began to head back the snow stopped and everything took on a eerie stillness. There was no wind, or sound and the tension in the air was only detectable by the sound of snow falling off drooping branches. A short walk down a path I normally wouldn’t have gone down (all the best photos start like this in my experience) and I captured this scene of a snowladen tree and punts.
My camera was pretty wet by this time and I decided that I should begin the walk home before getting ready and cycling (carefully!) through the snow to work. Although I was wet, cold and unable to feel my hands, things had worked out well. Perhaps there was something to be said about waking up early… which is what enticed me to head into town the very next day. Photos from that in Part 3 of this series.
For the technically minded: all photos in this post were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 24-105 f4L IS lens. They were then RAW processed in Lightroom and then handed over to Photoshop where editing may have involved either one or more of the following: cropping, sharpening, curves work and a soft focus filter.
