"Of course I can", I responded enthusiastically, while groaning on the inside, because for once I was actually not pretending to work, but was already snowed under plodding through a backlog of captions for sport images from the previous day, as well as an election news story photo from earlier that morning.

Carmel and Joshua Griffiths, of Legana, and Jim, at Miena

As well, a snow trip is not always as fun as it sounds, whenever I'm asked for a snow photo I remember the 45 minutes once spent freezing my fingers off in the ice on a muddy roadside trying to fit chains to the work car, before realizing it wasn't because of my ineptitude the chains wouldn't fit, it was because the work car had been upgraded and the chains hadn't.

Snow trip 2005

And so with a moment to think about it I formulated a plan to see what I could find on the way to Miena, and within the hour had captions from the previous jobs finished, and headed off in the i30 with snow chains I knew fitted.

The Highundies i30 on Poatina Road

As I headed towards Poatina on Saundridge Road I could see snow clouds drifting over the edge of the Great Western Tiers and a low rainbow followed beside in distant paddock.

Sleet set in as I climbed the 1000 metres past Poatina power station, and once on top on the plateau, snow started on cue.

Clouds over the Great Western Tiers from Saundridge Road

By Lake Highway snow was settling on the ground and I knew I'd be able to deliver something for the morning paper, it was just a matter of finding someone to be in a photograph.

At Miena Dam a mum and daughter wrapped in scarves and beanies were just leaving, and would have made a great photo had I been a minute earlier.

Snow falls near Miena

It snowed heavily as I waited around for a few minutes, hoping for another family to appear, but of the couple of cars that drove in, no one was suitable for a good photo and it was time to look elsewhere.

The old Great Lake wall at Miena

Further along the road I found a few families enjoying the snow experience and it couldn't have been any easier with a magic wand.

All the families approached said yes to being photographed, and a couple of them were from Launceston, which would keep the paper happy.

Caitlin and Jeremy Horder, with Declan and Ewan, of Grindelwald, at Miena

With a half a dozen shots in the camera, it was time to find a spot from which to caption and file the photos.

A few years back colleague Paul Scambler designed and made a laptop easel which fitted over the steering wheel, making it comfortable to sit in the driver's seat and caption images on the computer.

But in my old age, I prefer to use the back of the car as a standing desk, and have a tarp that goes over the tailgate as a light shade, as well as a weather shelter.

The other photographers laugh at me but I think they are secretly impressed.

The Great Lake office

When it's cold I leave the heater on high which keeps my hands and face warm, but today it couldn't compete with one degree temperature and strong wind and I was frozen through by the time I'd sent the last photo back.

From there it was a nice drive past Breona and Pine Lake, descending to the autumn sunshine again at Golden Valley. And with everything filed, it was just a matter of enjoying the drive back to Launceston.

Phillip Biggs, photographer