By Ellen Bedrosian

I think every photographer in Bergen County woke up with the same idea on Friday morning (2/5/16). The overnight snowfall was pure magic. A winter wonderland of epic proportions. It was heavy and full. The trees and shrubs were majestic in their winter white.

Alas, I had to take my 89-year-old mother to a doctor’s appointment and do her grocery shopping. I walked to my car, cursing my bad luck, then stopped. It was as if the snow was talking to me, saying “Are you kidding me? Go back inside and get your camera!” So I did.

The lure of this snowfall was so powerful that the normally mundane view at the beginning of my street demanded: Shoot me! I stopped my car in middle of the road (luckily I live on a dead end) and grabbed some images with my iPhone. Later, I used Snapseed for some clean-up and enhancement while waiting in the doctor’s office.

iPhone image, processed with Snapseed

Driving further down the street, I spied a woman, maybe 75 or 80-years-old, shooting the snow on the bushes and trees in her front yard. I stopped my car. “Isn’t the snow magnificent?” I shouted through my open window.

“This snow isn’t going to last long,” she predicted. “If you want to take photos, you better get out early.”

She was right. By around noon, the sun had come out and began melting the snow off the branches.

Blauvelt Mansion in Oradell was on the route to my mom’s doctor. It looked like a fairy tale castle in the Alps. I was definitely shooting that on the way back.

Blauvelt Mansion

Blauvelt didn’t disappoint. The house is always image-worthy in any season. But the bushes around the property looked like they were wearing little snow hats. My mom thought I was brave because it was still pretty windy and cold out. I laughed. “I know people who shoot Yellowstone in the winter. This is easy.”

I made my way over to Dunkerhook Park in Fair Lawn after doing her grocery shopping and organizing her medications for the week. It was around noon and the sun had come out, rapidly melting the snow off the trees. Big blobs of melting snow bombarded my head. I put up my hood for protection. Then my stomach started growling since I’d skipped breakfast. But I ignored them both and kept shooting the trees and bushes.

Finally, I couldn’t ignore the low battery warning on my camera. Here are a few of the other images I captured that day. Luckily, I listened to my inner voice and had gone back for my dSLR so I could shoot the winter miracle after shuffling my mother around.

If you’d like to see more, here’s a link to my Flickr album.

Snow on branches

Bokeh Snowbud

Snow on leaves

Snow & moss