Steve Baldwin's Blog, page 2

best 2 photos

Here are the best photos that I have taken recently. thanks to a sweet fluffy snowstorm and a break in the clouds!!!

autumn light

Here is today's inspiring autumn light, while we wait for snow in the Alps... To paraphrase one of my favourite songs: "... and the sky is a hazy shade of winter ... look around, there's a patch of snow on the ground..."
​Thanks, Simon and Garfunkel!

Early influences

 When I was a child, we had a couple of old oil paintings on the wall, snowy pictures from the Swiss Alps. These had a huge influence on my conscious and subconscious mind, the fresh powder snow and ski tracks shining white, and looking like a Christmas cake.  These paintings were a big part of my everyday life, as I would pass them several times a day, and they were my favourite paintings in the house. Ultimately I am in the mountains, partly due to Mr Anderson's beautiful imagery.  Another big artistic influence from my early creative years was a Canadian First Nations artist from the West Coast of BC, Roy Henry Vickers. I first came across his work when I was 12, on a trip out West.
 His awesome use of colour and shape, combined with our trip amongst the wild ocean and mountains of BC and Alberta, really hit home with my soul.

Here is his website, so you can check out some really cool art:
http://www.royhenryvickers.com_

i just wrote an Article about powder

   I just wrote an article in a new online ski/snowboard magazine 'Style Altitude' - an article about powder snow, with some of my images from last winter...
Check it out at their website:  http://stylealtitude.com/powder-addiction.html ... meanwhile, we had some fresh snow in the Chamonix mountains this week: The following little video was supposed to be a short clip where you could see the snow pillows growing as it snowed, but it didn't really happen, because the camera ran out of battery in the cold air after only 9 minutes, and it wasn't during the heaviest point of the snowfall.
I like the result, though - the crystals glittering like diamonds (or "like a million mirrors"): And to finish off, here are some musings from an autumn evening last week:

    Tonight, the moon is high in the sky, nearly full, and shining brightly on the glaciers and recent snow.
There is some mottled cloud passing over the mountain from time to time, subduing the moon's light, while the steep high ridge of spiky peaks is silhouetted darkly, menacing in the bright sky. ...

In 2 or 3 days the next active weather will approach, and cold October rain will obscure the mountains, adding an extra dark mood to the valley, while a layer of fresh snow builds on the high mountain ridges.

autumn vibes

Here is a selection of images from last week, a very inspiring time in the mountains, echoing some of the images in "Snow Tales and Powder Trails": Storm coming in... The aftermath: The Crystals... Reaping the harvest...

a quote from "Snow Tales And Powder Trails"

Here is a little excerpt from "Snow Tales and Powder Trails", to warm up a cold winter day, with a photo from the inside... Happy reading!

autumn snowfall

  Here is a video essay from last week in the Chamonix mountains - a snowstorm coming in at 3800m, and intensifying during the afternoon... The rain/snow line was around 2600/2700m, and it ended up raining all night in Chamonix town: And here is a photo of the aftermath when the sky cleared after the storm:

an autumn day photo essay from chamonix

 Here is a photo essay to mirror "Snow Tales and Powder Trails" book, which is, in essence, like a big photo essay with stories.
​​ I will let the photos speak for themselves, except to say that it was one of the most spectacular autumn days ever around Chamonix!  The light kept changing, and I couldn't stop taking photos! Here is a selection of the day's bounty:

Tree snow

Today saw the first tree-snow of the season above Chamonix Meanwhile, up in the high mountains, the snow was super nice wintry, deep, fluffy powder, with some awesome crystals. If I was a mouse, there would have been some awesome ski descents to do in the Aiguille Du Midi complex, but right now for us humans there isn't a deep enough snowpack to get the skis out yet, and the glaciers are really open after a hot summer.

August 16th, 2015

  Depending on the weather and the season, we live either in an oven or a fridge here in Chamonix.
  Today is a fridge day - it is a pretty cold day for mid August. There was even a taste of winter high up in the mountains, after the rain from the last days, and the mountains had a stunning fresh coat of white paint! 
  More about this in my second book in the not too distant future...