It’s a stunningly beautiful day out there, today, but bitterly cold. So cold, in fact, that I found myself changing camera batteries with not one, but two pairs of mittens left on (not an easy feat). So cold that even Rowan pup gave me a look that said, “You want me to plonk my behind down on THAT? Are you cracked?”

At last check, it was -11C, but -22C with the windchill and those winds were gusting up to 60 or 80km/h, depending on your level of crazy proximity to the open ocean.

Instead of the long ramble through the woods that I had originally planned, Rowan and I did a series of short stops around town, choosing to take advantage of the light and fresh powder without ruining our moods by having to backtrack and hunt for tails or fingers that had frozen and fallen off.

We found statues around the Basilica of St. John the Baptist (St. John’s, Newfoundland, in case you were wondering).

There is something fascinating about photographing statuary in the snow. The cold, white stone contrasts with the brilliantly blue skies and the smoothness of the carving/moulding plays off the slight granularity of the stone. There’s also the overall dichotomy found between the inevitable signs of decay and obvious intentions of eternity. Add to this the fact that the subject matter holds perfectly still for as long as you could want them to and you’ve got a great focus for studies.

I took a few in black and white, too. Sometimes it’s more interesting to play with contrasts and lines when the colours have been eliminated.

We also took a wander through a few other spots. More on those after I have a look at the pictures.