“Water, water, everywhere,
Nor a drop to drink…”

Michigan winters can be frustrating, and this one particularly so. With almost 100 inches of snow fall so far this season, you have to adjust your lifestyle a bit. A quick trip to the store isn’t so quick when the roads are surrounded by snow banks several feet high, making every intersection a game of chance. And while it may be fun to slip slide around on the pavement, dodging other drivers who are also skidding, it ultimately gets a bit frustrating to not be able to just get in the car and go.

One the bright side – who needs a gym membership when every morning presents a fresh workout with shovel and overnight snow fall?

For me, the most frustrating aspect of the last several weeks is that none of this great new snow is any good for photographing. It floats down from the heavens like the gods’ dandruff – fine, broken particles with little form or substance. It piles up out of sheer volume. It blows around in the wind almost like smoke or fog. And it makes for really poor photos…

Here’s what it looks like up close:

So while I’ve been spending a bit of time out in the garage with camera set up to take snow crystal shots, there is little to show for it. Here and there an intact crystal lands. It seems that the best crystals fall at the very beginning of a snow storm and then again at the very end. Hopefully a few nice crystals will yet come down this season.

But in the short term the forecast for Michigan is a sudden rise in temperature with a good chance of rain – time for us Michiganders to hang up the snow shoes and get out the waders.