By Scott Shephard

If you followed my one-line tease ("There's not much I like about winter . . . ) here's the end of the sentence: ". . . but on a day like this, I'll make an exception."

I spent almost three hours yesterday prowling the back roads north of Watertown looking for good subjects to photograph. I had left my "real" camera at home but I did have my trusty Phantom 4 Pro. And it served me well. Flying in fog is tricky in that the props will ice pretty quickly. Solution: fly and photograph for 5 minutes, land and then scrape the ice off the blades. Repeat.

There are two things I will say about my work yesterday: First, you should have been with me. It was about 15 F, windless, and silent. In other words, it was an amazing day to be out north of Watertown. Second, I wasn't sure if I was getting anything worth keeping. But it didn't matter. At this stage in my photographic life, because no one is really expecting anything from me, my hunt for pictures is more about the "journey" and less about the "destination."

Under these circumstances, time and self disappear. Even the sound of the drone goes away. Everything but the subject on a day like yesterday becomes white noise. My friend Jack has helped me understand that this act is spiritual and meditative. Because of that, perhaps, my photographs are an offering and a kind of prayer.

Phantom 4 Pro FC6310 1/160s f/7.1 ISO100 8.8mm (35mm eq:24mm)