After the last snowfall I was out looking for shadows. I'm on a shadow quest lately and sunny days and snow do make for possibilities. When I passed the house (pictured below) it caught my attention because it's entirely white and even more so with fresh snow. It was all whiter than white so I took that as my cue while I edited this.

Photography in the winter is great but it does require a few safeguards, as I learned early on.

It was several years ago and my quest at that time was to find bare trees so I could put together a collection of tree shapes. One Sunday afternoon I saw a lovely specimen as Norm and I were driving through Acton so I got out of the car, walked behind it to get a better angle and promptly stepped right into a snow-filled ditch. However, it wasn't a little ditch because I sunk above my waist and I couldn't move my legs to get out.

I'd never been trapped in snow like that. There was nothing to use to pull myself out, I had my camera in one raised hand and all I could do was try to get Norm's attention. However, he couldn't see me or hear me because he'd put on some really loud rock music while he waited.

So I kept strugglin' and he kept rockin'.

It wasn't until he saw a woman in van pass very slowly and he noticed the expression on her face that he figured something might not be right. He got out of the car and naturally the first thing he asked was, 'what are you doing in that ditch?'

"Take my camera!!!" was my desperate response.

He put the camera on the back of the car, gave me his hand and tried to pull but I was stuck like a bug on fly paper. He muttered something about calling a tow truck to haul me out and received a look that could peel paint off walls.

"Move your legs!!"

"I can't"

He pulled and almost fell in the ditch himself with his position several feet above me. Finally, he was able to drag me out of that ditch and on to the side of the road.

All dignity entirely lost, it was a moment before I could stand and I lay there like a frozen flounder but the only thing I could ask was, "Did my camera get wet?"