Plow Patrol

 

My original plan for today was to go snowshoeing but the wind was way too nasty for that to be enjoyable so instead I went on "plow patrol". I staged myself in several different areas to catch the plow trucks going by. I don't exactly know why but I love capturing photos of snow plows in action. The first photo shown here is a Minnesota Department of Transportation plow coming over the Mt. Josephine pass in Grand Portage.  I've been wanting to get this shot for a long time but it has never worked out until today.  Even today I had to sit and wait almost 30 minutes for him go by. Once he did, though, I got my shot!  I also captured a few other images of the MNDOT plows along various stretches of Highway 61. 

After photographing the MNDOT plows, I headed up the Arrowhead Trail to see how much snow was up there (as it turns out, there is a quite a lot of snow along the entire length of the Trail!). Just south of McFarland Lake I was able to stop at a pullout and capture the Cook County Highway Department grader going by. 

Photographing plow vehicles is, in a way, like photographing wildlife. The more time you invest in getting to know the plowing patterns and all the little places where you can pull off the road to safely photograph them, the more successful you'll be in getting good photos. Typically I pay attention to which side of the road has been plowed then I know it's only a matter of time (usually not too long) before the plow will come back the opposite way.  Once I find a good safe spot to park that has a photogenic view of the road and surrounding environment, I wait. Sometimes it only takes a few minutes and other times I'm waiting for quite a while. I also make a lot of these photos with a telephoto lens which can give the impression that I'm standing in the middle of the road or right in the path of the truck.  Rest assured, this is not the case. I'm always as safe as I can be when taking these photographs and never put myself in the path of the plow truck or other traffic.