Your Take Today: USA TODAY's top reader photo

Winter weather has hit parts of the country, especially for Your Take contributor Tammi Elbert.

Elbert captured this magnificent horse, Loui, outside of Washington, Miss., using a Nikon D800 with a Nikon 80-400 zoom lens. Elbert says slight edits were made using Photoshop CS5, bumping levels to brighten and crop.

Elbert says when she saw Loui in the snow, "I knew there was a shot there."

"I love the mood and lighting," she says. "To me there is no such thing as bad lighting or too bad of weather to shoot. It's just a challenge to make it work."

Elbert used the fence rail to steady the lens because it was too messy to set up a tripod: "It was snowing hard, so the challenge was keeping the camera dry."

"My favorite shots are unposed things that just happen," she says. "I seldom leave home without my camera. You never know what you'll see."

Find out more about Elbert's photography on her Facebook and Twitter.

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