A couple of days ago a few inches of snow finally reached us here in Leeds, east of the Penines in the north of England.

It was very misty when I finally went out and I couldn’t help but think of those oft-repeated words to photographers – It’s all about the light.

Well, there wasn’t much light around that afternoon.

This tree is in Soldiers Field in Leeds, a local landmark where local football teams play on a Sunday, and the goalposts were all that could be seen looming out of the mist.

Save for this lone tree.

There are trees along the boundary of the field, but the field itself is an expanse of close-cropped grass save for a very few trees. On this day this lone tree was king or queen of all it surveyed.

Meanwhile, off in the distance, these boys were dragging their sled across the field.

Technical
For this shot of the boys with the sled, I set the exposure compensation to +1.33 to compensate for the black cat at night problem that all cameras face – that is, knowing what they are pointed at.

The question the camera cannot answer is whether the subject is mid-grey or black or white or a mixture of light and dark tones. It’s a question I looked at in this article on digital cameras, though the question applies to film cameras also.

In brief though, the problem is that if a subject is all white and the camera doesn’t know it (which it doesn’t) then it will expose it as though it is a standard scene, which is mid-grey. So to compensate for that and make the subject brighter and whiter, the thing to do is to over expose the shot.

This is done by dialing in a positive amount of exposure compensation – in this case +1.33. Even that wasn’t enough and if I were to shoot in similar circumstances with the Nikon D700 again, I would probably try an exposure compensation of one stop more – say + 2.33.

Luckily, this was shot in RAW, so I could increase the exposure in Adobe Photoshop after the event.

New!   Now you can buy a large art print of this image from Quillcards.

1.
Question :
What is recorded as the most snow that has even fallen in a single snowstorm?
Answer:
From February 13 to February 19 in 1959, one continuous snowstorm at Mt. Shasta Ski Bowl in California produced 15.75 feet (4.8 meters) of snow.

2.
Question:
What are snowflakes and how are they formed?
Answer:
Snowflakes are actually a special form of water ice. Clouds are made up of water vapor, and it is in this water vapor that snowflakes are formed.

When the temperature drops to 32°F (0° C) or colder, water changes from its liquid form into ice. Beyond that, several components affect the formation of the snowflakes. Temperature, air currents, and humidity all have an impact on the shapes and sizes of snowflakes.

In addition, particles of dirt and dust can get mixed up in the water vapor. Such particles make the snowflake heavier. They can also cause cracks and breaks in the crystal, thereby making it easier to melt.

On the individual level, each snowflake actually contains from two to 200 separate snow crystals.

3.
Question:
How many different shapes can snowflakes be?
Answer:
According to physicist Kenneth Libbrecht, author of Ken Libbrecht’s Field Guide to Snowflakes, there are 35 different types of snowflakes!

Furthermore, it is extremely unlikely that two snowflakes with complex shapes will ever look alike.

4.
Question:
Does it always have to be at the point of freezing or below freezing to snow?
Answer:
No, that’s a common misconception. That’s why even during the warmer months of March or April when the ground temperature is above freezing, there can be a layer of extremely cold air at several thousand feet. As the atmosphere warms, this layer can become unstable – and snow can result.

5.
Question:
What happens to snowflakes falling in such a situation?
Answer:
The snowflakes don’t have time to melt as they fall through the warmer air, and instead they become very large snowflakes that can be about 3 inches (7cm) in diameter.

6.
Question:
How large was the biggest recorded snowflake that fell?
Answer:
In a freak occurrence, snowflakes fell in Montana in the USA on January 28, 1887 that reportedly measured 15 inches (38cm) in diameter and 8 inches (20cm) in thickness.

A man named Matt Coleman who saw these snowflakes descend to Earth characterized them as being “larger than milkpans.”

7.
Question:
Speaking of snow records, what is the largest piece of ice recorded to have fallen to Earth?
Answer:
An ice block measuring 20 feet (6 meters) in length fell in Scotland on August 13, 1849.

8.
Question:
What about hailstones? Have there ever been any fatalities connected with them?
Answer:
Yes. There are a number of records involving fatalities connected with hailstones.

For example, on April 14, 1986, a tremendous hailstorm in Bangladesh with hailstones 4 inches (10cm) across reportedly killed 92 people. Some of the stones weighed 2.25 pounds (1 kg).

9.
Question:
What was the greatest recorded amount of snow that ever fell in one winter in the USA?
Answer:
95 feet (29 metres), which was the amount of snow that fell at Mt. Baker in Washington State during the winter of 1998-1999. That measurement is almost the height of New York’s Statue of Liberty.

10.
Question:
What prompted the composer Jules Styne and the lyricist Sammy Cahn to create the classic Christmas song, ‘Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!’?
Answer:
Well, it definitely wasn’t the weather since it was written in July 1945 when Hollywood was sweltering from one of its hottest days on record.

However, because of its seasonal references to snow and as one of the best-selling songs ever since it first became a popular hit sung by Vaughn Monroe in October 1945, it is generally considered a Christmas song.

Yet despite its upbeat, festive feel, it was intended as a love song and it never mentions Christmas.

Bet You Know This One!
If you live in the West and in a good number of countries otherwise around the world, chances are very high that you’ll recognize this first stanza of the iconic American Christmas song called ‘Sleigh Ride’ composed by Leroy Anderson with lyrics written by Mitchell Parish:

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling,
ring ting tingling too…
Come on, it’s lovely weather
for a sleigh ride together with you.
Outside the snow is falling
and friends are calling “yoo hoo”…
Come on, it’s lovely weather
for a sleigh ride together with you.

We’re Having A Heat Wave
It was actually during a heat wave in July 1946 that Leroy Anderson thought of composing the music for this song.

His idea was to create a light orchestral piece, and it wasn’t until the winter of 1948 that he finished his composition. A year later its first performance took place, played by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the baton of Arthur Fiedler.

‘Sleigh Ride’ Gets Famous
It was the era of 45 rpm and 78 rpm vinyl records, and the song became a hit record for the RCA Victor Red Seal and grew to become the Boston Pops Orchestra’s signature song.

Spicing It Up
A year after the piece was first performed, Mitchell Parish wrote his lyrics for the song, which were about a person wanting to go for a sleigh ride with someone on a winter’s day.

Pass The Pumpkin Pie (And Not The Christmas Turkey)
Although ‘Sleigh Ride’ is generally played most around Christmas and often appears on Christmas compilation albums, the lyrics never specifically mention Christmas or any religious observance.

In fact, the pumpkin pie talked about in the fifth stanza of the song is suggestive of Thanksgiving more than of Christmas.

An Accidental Christmas Classic
Whether or not its composer and lyricist intended it as a Christmas song, “Sleigh Ride” is consistently ranked in the top 10 list of most performed songs during the Christmas season around the world according to the review of Christmas music issued by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

How ‘Sleigh Ride’ Ranks in The History of Western Music
And according to the author Steve Metcalf who wrote the book entitled Leroy Anderson: A Bio-Bibliography published by Praeger in 2004, “Sleigh Ride … has been performed and recorded by a wider array of musical artists than any other piece in the history of Western music.”

Now What Was That Line??
Just in case you can’t recall all the lyrics of this wonderfully festive song (including that bit about the pumpkin pie mentioned earlier), here they are:

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling,
ring ting tingling too…
Come on, it’s lovely weather
for a sleigh ride together with you.
Outside the snow is falling
and friends are calling “yoo hoo”…
Come on, it’s lovely weather
for a sleigh ride together with you.

Giddy up, giddy up, giddy up,
let’s go… Let’s look at the show…
We’re riding in a wonderland of snow.
Giddy up, giddy up, giddy up,
it’s grand… Just holding your hand…
We’re gliding along with a song
of a wintry fairy land.

Our cheeks are nice and rosy
and comfy cozy are we…
We’re snuggled up together
like two birds of a feather would be…
Let’s take that road before us
and sing a chorus or two…
Come on, it’s lovely weather
for a sleigh ride together with you.

There’s a birthday party
at the home of Farmer Gray…
It’ll be the perfect ending a of perfect day.
We’ll be singing the songs
we love to sing without a single stop…
At the fireplace while we watch
the chestnuts pop… Pop! pop! pop!

There’s a happy feeling
nothing in the world can buy…
When they pass around the coffee
and the pumpkin pie.
It’ll nearly be like a picture print
by Currier and Ives…
These wonderful things are the things
we remember all through our lives!

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling,
ring ting tingling too…
Come on, it’s lovely weather
for a sleigh ride together with you.
Outside the snow is falling
and friends are calling “yoo hoo”…
Come on, it’s lovely weather
for a sleigh ride together with you.

It’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you…
It’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.

Sleigh Ride – music by Leroy Anderson, lyrics by Mitchell Parish