Photography in the Snow, Part III

Last year we had two snowstorms that afforded the opportunity to test BirdCam photography in the snow. I learned quickly that too much snow in the picture played havoc with color contrast. Our weekend snowstorm provided a third opportunity for experimentation. Regrettably, I am not much closer to the right answer. This photograph was taken on Saturday at a time when the skies were overcast and some sleet was falling. My hope was to set up at ground level so that the darker background would balance the composition and the snow field would be flatter. It didn't work. Notice how this fairly colorful set of birds (Northern Cardinals, Eastern Towhee, and White Throated Sparrow) are utterly washed out by the poor contrast. To be sure the weak ambient light didn't help, but photos taken the following day in the same location were not much better. In fact I had the opposite problem: bright sunlight was amplified by snow on the ground and again, images were spoiled. There may be a sweet spot for the BirdCam in snow, but I am finding the white stuff to be a form of weather that will almost certainly work against brilliant images.