Well, the snow has stopped but the cold has simply increased, or should I say decreased given the decrease in temperature? Anyway, this has led to a large amount of frost sitting upon everything around. It is incredibly cold here, with a humidity around 80% during the daytime and temperatures dropping more at night. It was supposedly going to warm up over this week but I don't see that actually happening. While the snow has stopped, there's a thick layer of cold fog that lingers throughout the day and night, leading to the general visibility being awful in much of the city. Earlier, a set of fireworks were going off and all you could hear was that loud pop, with no light visible anywhere. Not sure who chooses to set fireworks off with such nonexistent visibility, but alright! Still, I've been having fun with photography more. Even down to taking the 35mm film camera out and about instead of the digital one, leading to a few less photographs than usual here on Hive.
Photographing things does feel a bit more simple when the density of the fog is around. I feel like I get a bit closer to subjects or focus more on simple compositions in architecture a bit more. Especially when shooting on 35mm film stock. Where the colours are going to be less the focus and more the sharper edges and compositions of whatever is around. In Armenia, many of the buildings are incredibly old. Most apartment buildings were thrown up around the 1940s, others around the 1970s. These tend to be smaller buildings but with unique styles to them in the details. When the Soviets still around the time of Stalin focused on the Roman Empire's beauty. A little later after his death would the architecture shift into the much more famous Soviet Modernism that people throughout the world have come to appreciate in its oddities.
I don't think I've seen frost like this before. Where the trees are frozen still. Little spikes of frost growing up and out from the dead branches. Leaves that remain drooped and frozen in time. I think under the camera these more blue and cold tones look really beautiful. I've really enjoyed walking through the more quiet courtyards and streets where those buildings reside. The only warmth coming from the windows of the apartments where people remain indoors. The roads iced over and quiet. Empty for the most part. Nobody walking around. No cars coming through. No stray dogs. Few cats. Just silence. Alone within the stillness of the frost. It's really peaceful. For once I used something other than the Mir 1v for these, though that was because I was using a sharper lens for some work projects I had appear. Opting for the sharpness that is likely needed rather than the softness of vintage glass. These were instead the Sony 35mm f1.8 lens.
While in some of my posts have I mentioned that I am getting tired of the cold, and that is true to some degree. I'm definitely not prepared for it. And at this point it doesn't feel worth it to buy more clothes for the season when the harsher spring and summer weather in Armenia is coming around the corner. But there is some beauty to the winter season. Where the colours shift, the atmosphere is vastly different. Especially here where the streets remain rustic and old. Where each step does feel like you've entered a different era. A forgotten one. To feel and experience that under another coating of nature and weather makes it all feel new again, in a way.
