That's real snow. We got a fair amount last year in Michigan, but this year is pretty sparse.
Most automatic exposure cameras really mess up snow shots. They try to make the exposure meet the standard "18% grey" reflectance, yet snow is obviously much whiter. I took your picture and used the Camedia Master 2.5 software that came with my Olympus Digital Camera and used the "Instant Fix" to lighten the whites in the attachment. The same thing can be achieved with film cameras by opening up the f-stop one or two stops.