It may officially be spring according to the calendar.  However, there are plenty of places in the world where winter won’t let go so easily.  Lingering winter can be tiresome and frustrating for some who are done with the cold and the dark.  They long for the warmth and color of spring.  However, spring often arrives late as winter continues to linger longer than appreciated.  Let’s take a look at the kind of landscape photography which lingering winter can provide.

Ok, that was a bit of a tease.  Lingering winter provides the exact same landscape photography which regular winter provides.  There’s nothing THAT special about early spring in the mountains which makes it different from wintertime.  There’s still snowstorms and cold.  The landscape scene remains unchanged for weeks.  Then, when it finally does change, the changes are so subtle that you might call them imperceptible at first.  You finally notice springtime arriving not long before summer is due.

Early spring of March and even April often brings in dramatic skies.  There’s lots of big clouds moving through.  Most days are at least partly cloudy.  This can make for interesting skies in landscape photography in the right circumstances.  Such a circumstance popped up for me recently.  Here’s what I captured.

A recent snowstorm dumped several inches more snow on Bryce Canyon.  When the roads were again cleared, I made a trip for photography.    While trekking out to this viewpoint, I was glad I brought my Yaktraks with me.  The snow was piled up to almost level withe fence in places.  Much of the walkway was treacherously slippery.  I couldn’t understand people walking out there with Birkenstock sandals and the like.  Still, they managed to make the trek as well as I did, though perhaps much less safely.

I made it out to the point in time for sunset.  I knew there was a good chance the sizable cumulus cloud hovering over the canyon would light up with the setting sun.  Indeed, I arrived in time for the cloud to light up orange.  I simply pulled out my camera and captured the scene in front of me.  The trek back out made me extra glad for assistance.  The Yaktraks and the ice spike on my walking stick really helped as some of the slush already froze into solid ice.

Sunset and other golden hour photos are great.  The light balances just right.  Often times, I don’t need to do much in the way of post-processing because there’s little to do.  Everything is already practically or all-the-way there.  Such was the case for this beautiful landscape photo.

So, now I turn things over to you.  What do you think of this new landscape photo showing a lingering winter in Bryce Canyon?  Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.