David Halgrimson, APSA  

City Snow Storm by David Halgrimson, APSA

December 2025 - City Snow Storm

December 2025 - David Halgrimson, APSA

Original

About the Image(s)

I took this in 2018 with an iPhone 7. We had special tickets to a Timberwolves basketball game. At first, we hesitated because there was a big snowstorm in process, and it was not supposed to stop anytime soon, and we lived about 20 miles away. I made the decision to go anyway, the tickets were second row, included dinner before, and snacks during the game. We had a great time, and then it was time to go home…this image is what we saw when leaving the arena. There was a heavy snow fall going on, and when we got to the freeway, there were no cars except ours. 4-5 inches of snow made it quite the experience getting home, which we did without issue.

It is a JPG file so a bit limited when processing. In Lightroom I made a number of Basic adjustments, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks. Then used 7 masks to enhance 7 areas within the image. Converted to B&W in LR and Silver Efex Pro 2. I used the preset #24 Full Contrast, raised the reds, lowered the yellows and blues, added a vignette #2, added a boarder type #1 sizing it down some.

5 comments posted

Paul Smith   Paul Smith
Your image reminds of the movie, "The Bishops's Wife"...the first one with Loretta Young and Cary Grant! ( BTW, this is a good time of year to watch that movie) You portray lots of energy and action on a cold winter's night! I like this!   Posted: 12/02/2025 23:02:40
Bob Rickert   Bob Rickert
I like the image a lot! Perfect subject matter for a B&W image (dark, crappy weather, people walking around). It is excellent that you were able to capture all of this with a JPEG. Phone cameras are something else. The increased contrast really improved n the original (IMO).   Posted: 12/08/2025 19:07:21
Adrian Binney   Adrian Binney
David,
First thank you for the story! I trust you have an appropriate 4x4 vehicle, living with snowy winter conditions like this.

Very interesting image which really portrays the harsh city conditions in winter. I would love to see the original in colour (unless of course you took it as a mono). This would help me understand the benefits of the detailed edits you mention. But the end result is certainly impressive! And on a jpeg!

I use Topaz (Photo or Gigapixel) to convert a jpeg and to increase its size for older phone shots - but you did wonders here!
  Posted: 12/12/2025 18:55:33
Paul Hoffman   Paul Hoffman
I remember this stuff, its called snow. We had it once, now it just rains a lot. lol. You have captured the condition well and the black and whites hold well. I think with something like Topaz, more could have been done. But this is a great effort with an iPhone 7 image.   Posted: 12/16/2025 14:18:08
Mary Ann Carrasco   Mary Ann Carrasco
David, I like how your edits brought out the snow and made the image very dramatic! Nice street photography. Thanks for the backstory too....the best camera you have is the one you have with you! It is amazing what phones can do.   Posted: 12/17/2025 20:57:54

 

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