Snow Day at The Butchart Gardens

Being a rare occurrence, snow brought very different look to the familiar scenes. Different, fairy-tale-like and quite magical. Have to say, it looks much colder than it actually was - suffice it to say, all this snow wasn't there the next morning :)

Since it's such a rare view, it's quite difficult to keep the number of images in the post reasonable. While I do my best to show the best compositions, light etc, the temptation to show some shots simply because they illustrate this unconventional look is difficult to overcome. So, let's compromise: I will try to cull the obvious junk, and you bear with the rest, maybe return to this post another time if you get tired. Deal?

(Little addition for the gearheads. Most shots are taken at ISO 1000, all of them handheld, with shutter speed down to 1/25s)

With that in mind:

The entrance...

...walking toward the Sunken Gardens,

and looking to the right

Iconic view of the Sunken Garden. You know, the viewing platform where you can immediately recognize those who see it for the first time by the AHHHs and WOWs they issue when the view opens. Both ahhs and wows are well deserved, the view IS mangnificent.

Down at the ground level

This is newer part of the Sunken Garden, a path created couple years ago

Back to the "Red tree"

Five Gold Rings pond. Especially majestic part of the gardens with the snow.

Walking around the pond...

...and looking to the right:

Looking back at the pond (you see now the spot across the water from which first two Golden Rings photos was taken)

Ross Fountain:

Never before did I find this bench a subject worthy of being photographed. With snow though it made the cut

These falling lights behind the goose (OK, swan) are difficult to show in a still shot. Had to drop the shutter speed even more to keep the motion effect.

The red light on the tree makes snow look like a cherry bloom.

Hopefully you made it to the end! I will try to keep the number of images down from now. I promise. That I will try. Will I succeed is, well, another matter.