Carmel under snow. What were you doing at 4am?

The snow. To some it's a destination. Before Jenn moved here, it was a place she would go to. E.g. "Today we will drive up the mountain and go see the snow." But, if you live in Indiana during the Winter... Well, it's just everywhere.

I actually enjoy many aspects of snow and got suddenly inspired to do a photo adventure at 4am. So I loaded up my new Suby with snacks, water, tripod, flashlights and things. I then put on several layers of clothes and grabbed my Nikon. Here we go.

My first bit of photo advice. Don't ever buy a cheap tripod. They are just a pain in the butt and you don't end up using them anyways. So just save your $20 and put it in a fund to get a carbon fiber Gitzo.

So I brought my tripod, but didn't use it. So granted, these photos are not going to turn out too fantastic because I had to go hand-held. But hey, there's a blizzard out there that is demanding to be photographed.

As I drove my Suby out of the driveway, I noticed that there was some serious snow on the ground. I nearly got stuck pulling out of my neighborhood. This is a little disappointing because I just sold my 96 Subaru to get a 2005. My 96 never got stuck. Not once. My new one seems much more slippery, and as I said before I nearly got trapped in a snow drift. I hypothesize that the weight is different, or maybe a manual transmission version works a little differnetly? I don't know.

So I immediately downgraded my plans. I had wanted to drive around Carmel a little bit, then go downtown. But considering I barely made it 4 blocks, I thought I would keep it local.

So the town was dead except for an army of snow plows. I think in 2 hours I saw only 2 cars pass by. But there was every type of truck and tractor imaginable pushing snow this way and that. Which made me do some serious thinking. For some reason I have always liked driving around in blizzards. I also like staying up late. I suddenly realized that it must be my destiny to become a snow-plow driver. It's perfect. I would love it. I'm not sure if you need a degree or some kind of driving certification, but I will be looking into it for next year.

So I cruised around Carmel, mostly near Main Street in the Carmel Arts District. There are several statues of people doing random activities here. I shot several pics of those covered in snow, or getting blizzarded on. Is blizzarded a word? It is now.

I also realized I should have brought a towel. Snow is getting all over my camera and lenses and is melting. This probably isn't good. I hope my camera works after tonight.

But it was fun. I would just throw my blinkers on, stop in the middle of the lane and get out and start shooting. Just walking through the snow made me miss skiing a lot. I need to do that soon before Winter is over.

So anyways, check out the results. I wouldn't say there's anything spectacular here. It was cold, my camera was wet, and I was getting blizzarded on the whole time. It was good to go on a photo adventure, but shooting in a snow downpour is a pain in the butt.