Friday morning – hoarfrost and fog. The world looked bleak, beautiful and photogenic as I walked the dog across the nearby fields.
As so often happens these days, I lamented those the days when I would have known that this weather was forecast and have set the alarm for an early start to get out and photograph the extraordinary conditions.

As the dog considered the lower section of a particularly fragrant lamppost, I resolved (it’s that time of year) to go home, dust off the box storing my cameras, charge the batteries and get out the following morning to shoot.

Saturday morning – 14C below freezing, clear and bright. Not as photogenic as yesterday…

…but I’d made it out of the house before dawn with a bag of cameras and pockets full of batteries (in an effort to keep them warm). I headed for Kobyla Gora, the highest point in Wielkopolska county (at a pretty meager 284m!) that, being Poland, is topped with a blue, metal cross and a ‘Way of Sorrow’! A rock that marks the summit is covered with crosses rosary beads and a jumbe of ex-voto.
The ‘peak’ is surrounded by pine plantations that were still frozen from the previous day’s frost and looked beautiful against the pale blue sky.

I wandered with my Leica M9Monochrom with a Zeiss 50mm as a main camera, and snapped the occasional shot with my M262 and the Voigtlander 21mm when the scene suited it better. I was looking to capture the quiet stillness and feeling of cold. I actually think that the colour pictures give a better feeling for the temperature due to the subtle golden hour tones.

The results are OK, but the main thing is that I got out, took some pictures and most of all, enjoyed doing it. Now let’s see if I keep it up…