I'd say he/she was a good driver, circling the car, clearing off the snow. Unlike a lot of drivers out there, with snow covering most of the windows! Those drivers should be given a ticket for unsafe driving!

"From the footprints I think the second car had one passenger only, but I might be wrong."

... and that he was running around his car!

I think it had two passengers. There are clearly two sets of footprints - one behind and one in front of the parked car. From the movement around the now vacated car, I suspect the passengers put something in the trunk before driving off forward and left. Nice shot though!

Playing CSI: The footprints look to be different depths, so that may mean one set was made some time before the other. The footprints around the vehicle sugeest that they may posisbly have been made whilst scraping the windows free of snow?

I like the fact that you can't tell for sure if this is a color or b/w photo.

What a cracking shot - The snow's documentation of the event of someone driving off in their car is just perfect.

Nice capture.

Richard (UK)

Funny picture. But I think there was only one at the car. He had to clean windows, all the windows.

I would say the missing car had two passengers. If you look below the parked car you can see a second set of footprints leading to the car.

neat "story telling" capture Sam! I really like the simplicity behind it. I would have to agree, I would say there is a passenger who might or might have not helped to use the snowbrush!

Great and original picture! Very wel spotted.

I see a second set of footprints behind the car that's there :P

This is really a cool looking shot. It looks like the car wants to drive in a circle and create a yin yang. I don't suppose we could get a larger version of this shot.

Wonderful! one of my favorites among your recent pics. Love the simplicity of the composition and the story it tells! Though I think there were 2 passengers (2 footprints go to the missing car).

我笑了，脚印，预示了那个去开车的人
english is poor, sorry.

This image is full of forensic evidences and poetic notions.
I mean it could be a scene of a Hitchcock movie and Tarkovsky movie at the same time.

He was cleaning off the snow on his car..

Hi,
Nice photo! The tons of footprints alongside the car, probably made when they were cleaning off the snow, looks very interesting.
Well, there might've been two people. See the set of footprints on the bottom of the screen?

You have such a good eye! Thanks for sharing.

My 2 cents:
There was only 1 person in the car thats now gone. He/she parked, got out from the drivers seat, walked to the back of the car (from the direction of the footprints - pointed end of shoe vs blunt back end), pulled out somethign from the trunk, went around the car and walked away in front of the car which is still parked (again, direction of footprints).
He or she then came back walking behind the car which is still parked, went to the rear left door, pulled out the ice pick and walked around the car clearing off snow/ice, jumped in and drove off. LOL.
Fantastic picture though! Great vantage point.

Wow, the contrast is incredible... And a great angle for the shot too. I like how the snow is still untouched in most of the photo. Where did you go to take that shot?

Now, did the car back in? or did it back out? :)

My deduction of the missing car, X:

1) Since there is no car in front of or behind X, the car likely left the scene driving forward. The indication of the engine location (melted area) also tells us where the front of the car is (assuming engine is front mounted!). This gives us the orientation of the vehicle.

2) The top set of footprints, A, seem to walk around to the passenger side of the vehicle. If there were only one person, I'd expect him/her to head straight to the driver side to start and warm up the car. This implies two people.

3) The bottom set of footprints B, seem to walk toward the driver side of the vehicle, implying he/she is the driver.

4) Footprint A shows that this person starts walking into the scene slowly due to closeness of footprints, and seems to drag their feet a little. By the time he/she passes the existing car, they pick up their pace (longer strides, no more dragging). Maybe at this point, they decided it was cold and hurried into X.

5) A and B are likely different people as their footprints have differing characteristics: A drags their feet, while B doesn't.

6) Looks like a thin layer of snow landed after the car drove off. The layer of snow came AFTER the car left because, if it came before the car showed up, we should expect to see dark patches where the tires came to rest. But there are no dark patches for the tires, so the snow came after the car left.

7) The melted patch under the engine bay indicates the car was warming up for a period of time before the car left. The engine warming up would have warmed up the asphalt underneath it. That asphalt should stay warm for a short period of time. When the thin layer of snow landed (see point 6) the warm asphalt melted the snow, causing the melted patch to form.

Yes, I am a nerd. lol!

Excellent composition. Eye moves from lower left corner to the upper rightish to the upper leftish. Very good.

Seeing as how theres no clearing of snow where the exhaust pipe would have been. The car must not have been running.
Thus meaning he or she did'nt clear the windows. Since most people leave the car running while clearing.
There seems to be alot more activity on the passenger side. If we knew the colour of this car, that would clear up ALL our questions.

There is was- gone!
Cool shot!

Love it, and Great title!

I'd say it backed out, owing to the number of footprints that are where the driver's door would be in that case. Wonderful shot, anyway!

I'm going with 4 passengers. All the footprints at the 2 rear doors were from strapping the kids (previously carried) into their seats.

Magnificent capture! Great work! This photo have a great story.

Cool!! :DD

CSI Toronto. Haha