We had a snow day this week where school was cancelled and I decided to dedicate the day to photography. This is my journey that day. I went out early to the marina because I love the idea of boats with snow, there’s a juxtaposition there that I think is interesting. I got down really low on the dock and hung my camera over the edge with a wide angle lens to place the boats in a dominant position in the frame with the snowy trees to form the background.

Canon EOS 7D Mk II EF-S 10-22mm at 10mm 1/1250 f/3.5 ISO 1250

I kept walking around the marina and I saw a place where the snow had fallen into the water in front of a sail boat. I was sticking with my wide angle 10-22mm at its widest to play with the angles of the floating snow against the angles of the bow of the boat. I felt like there were some interesting relationships there.

Canon EOS 7D Mk II EF-S 10-22mm at 13mm 1/1000 f/4 ISO 3200

As I was packing up my car to leave the marina, I saw the snow plow go by on Stewart Ave. I thought to myself, what image says snow day more than a snow plow so I raced off after the plow. They stopped in a nearby parking lot so I went up to them and asked if I could take their picture and where would they be plowing next? They told me that they were heading up 19A but had a few repairs to do. I went up the road, parked my car and got out to wait for them. 30 minutes of standing beside the road later I was paid off with this image as the truck roared by. I did get soaked but it was so worth it.

Canon EOS 7D Mk II EF-S 10-22mm at 21mm 1/1250 f/4.5 ISO 2500

From there I started driving around some neighbourhoods just watching for interesting photographs and I found this older gentleman shovelling his sidewalk. I went up to him and we had a little conversation and asked if I could photograph him while he worked. He was fine with that, such a nice man with a face full of character and we had an interesting conversation afterwards.

Canon EOS 7D Mk II EF 70–200mm + 2x at 292mm 1/12500 f/5.6 ISO 200

Later in the afternoon, after the sun came out I thought I might get some good photos of the sea lions down at Duke Point as the sun went down. The quality of the light is so key in making a good photograph and the low winter sunset produced some beautiful light. In my boat as I headed out there I crossed paths with a large freighter. I loved the contrast in colours and the striking lines created by the anchor chain, it’s shadow and the other anchor in the background. I waited until Snake Island drifted into view in the background and got this image.

Canon EOS 7D Mk II EF 70–200mm at 200mm 1/1000 f/2.8 ISO 100

My timing with the light was just about perfect as the sun began to disappear over the horizon just as I was finishing my photographs of the sea lions. The golden light plays over their dark brown fur to create some really beautiful colours.

That was my snow day, I had a blast.

-Russell Berg