December 2009  Photographers Resource - Monthly  Edition 72

Winter Photography

Next Edition - 1st January 2010

• Editorial

• Feature - Winter Highlights

• Freecycling an alternative way to move on or gain free equipment

• Photographers Diary

• December Wildlife Diary

It's  nearly the end of 2009 and although now winter is upon us there are still many photographic opportunities to be had for those of us brave enough to venture out in the cold. Our Winter Highlights Feature sets out some of the opportunities that you may like to consider. The winter weather itself can also offer great picture opportunities from waterfalls bulging with water from the many hours of rain, frost on the ground can place crystal like features onto fallen leaves, plants and cobwebs, and if any of you are lucky enough to get snow over the coming months then there are loads more potential opportunities to be had.

For those of you who may not want to venture out during the cold days then this could be a good opportunity for you to experiment indoors with techniques or extend the skills you already have, such as using flash, macro photography, party portraiture, we have many articles to help and point you in the right direction. Another option would be to use the time to sort through, tidy up, edit, add keywords and captions and metadata as well as organising and indexing those pictures you took during the summer.

We have updated the page on Nikon firmware and software, showing what the latest editions are. See this at Latest firmware and software versions. If you want to find it another time it's easy to find as it's on the photography page within the Reference Section.

Feature

Winter Highlights

Many of us during the winter period assume that many if not all UK attractions shut down during the winter months, and some will put away their cameras until the spring of the following year. However this is not the case, there are many photo opportunities to be had during the winter months as long as you can work around the shorter colder days. Many attractions do open all year albeit with many having shorter days, needing to shut before it gets dark, and/or less days open during the week, while many do just decide to shut down for the winter months, some of course have to on safety grounds.

For those attractions and facilities within the UK that are open all year we have a listing of some of them. There are probably others, that over time we will discover, but its quite an impressive list already, with far more open than we realised over the winter period. The list we have created concentrates primarily on the heritage attractions that are open all of the year, so this includes National Trust properties and the like.

Beyond the places on this list, there are many places that have Open Access all of the year for example, many heritage sites that have no entry fees, Abbeys and Religious Buildings,  Stones Circles, National Parks, coastlines, paths and trails which you can find in our Walks section and so on.

In all of the location guides on this website we have, as far as we have been able, showed the dates and times each place is open and so further places may be able to be identified from this. Although we don't have a full list of location guides you can access them either alphabetically by name or by topic, although probably the most convenient way is to use the county index, that way you can find out about those places open closest to you. Don't forget we have far more identified within our various listings.

A number of other places that are not open can still be photographed through the winter months, and in some cases this is beneficial. For example trees block the view of some Windmills and the like and in the winter with no leaves this is far less of a problem. Often there are no cars or people, and you may be able to get views that would be difficult when they are busy with tourists.

Winter Weather and Light

The weather in Britain varies a lot, there are poor weather days in the summer and some really good days in the winter. Quite a lot of winter days have sun but there are also attractive clouds.

December is the first real winter month, but it is also probably the most colourful with town and city centres festooned in Christmas lights, many communities also light up their houses and surrounding areas in aid of charity and to share in their Christmas joy. There are some more well known Christmas light attractions such as those put on annually in Mousehole Harbour in Cornwall, where since the 1960's they have been lighting up the harbour. This year the Mousehole Christmas Harbour Lights will be switched on at 7.30pm on Saturday 12th December. This is just one example of many that take place around the country and our list of Where to Photograph Christmas Lights gives far more.   We also have a list of  Illuminated Events which covers other winter attractions as well as carnivals, and illuminated woodlands.

Mousehole Christmas Harbour Lights

Photographing in the dark, with small amounts of light does offer it's own challenges and to help you get at least some good results you could take a look at the following articles:-

• Photographing Street scenes at night 

• Photographing coloured lights in forest/woodland settings 

• Fun Fairs

• Carnivals

Often the light is good, and where in the summer you may have to get up very early or stay out late to see a sunrise or sunset, in the winter months you can do this type of photography and still get a decent nights sleep. Similarly the low angle of the sun in the winter months gives a light that is, to some, more pleasing for landscapes, and gives the ground and features a less flat effect. Photographing sunsets will explain how to go about this together with a more detailed explanation,   but we also have an article looking at Sunset Filters which will explain how you can have a sunset in a scene without one necessarily being there.

Special Photography Opportunities in the Winter

Kew Gardens Ice Rink 2008

Snow scenes, ice, icicles, frost, frost on cobwebs, Waterfalls in full flow, perhaps some waves breaking over the sea front are scenes that come to mind that are most effective or only possible in winter. Of course in some locations around the country there are also opportunities to capture people and communities having fun such as at the Outdoor Winter Ice Rinks, or the many fire festivals which start to take place towards the end of this month and in Scotland in particular going on through to the beginning of February next year. See our list of Fire Festivals and Fire Events, for ideas on what to visit and if you want to see more detailed events then take a look at Burning the Clocks , which takes place in Brighton, Sussex or The Fireball Festival, in Stonehaven, Kincardineshire.

For the Wildlife enthusiast there are also many wildlife spectaculars and places around the UK, including the 7 Wildfowl and Wetland centres across the country, such as at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire who have floodlit feeding sessions of the Bewick's Swans who visit them, Martin Mere in Lancashire is the winter home of geese, and during the winter months have large numbers of migratory birds visiting them, giving you the opportunity to capture something that only visits once a year. Some of our wildlife parks and zoos are also open during the winter months.

Even woodlands and gardens go on producing some form of plants, fungi and spectacular landscape colour, such as the appearance of carpets of Snowdrops towards the end of January and into spring. Many of the Botanic Gardens are open all year round, and have something on offer all year. Some of our forests also become a colourful spectacle but not from natural nature sources, but from illumination installations where the woodland in the dark can become magical and intense. Our National Arboretum - Enchanted Christmas at Westonbirt in Gloucestershire is just one of these.

The Down Side of Winter Photography

There is a down side to photography in the winter. It can be cold, supporting places like cafes and restaurants may not be open, so make sure you wrap up warm and take something warm to eat and drink, and even sometimes public toilets are locked. The other disadvantage is that the days are shorter so you have less hours of photography in a day, or can cover less places.

Concluding

The winter months offer great photographic opportunities, it's cost effective to stay away, some hotel groups offering rooms from only £9 a night, and far more is available to be photographed than most appreciate. So this winter rather than packing your camera away until the spring, use the resources on this website and others to make a list of photographs that you would like to get, get out and enjoy getting them. Don't forget if you're lucky enough to have snow over this period there will be loads more opportunities to be had.

Taking a look at 3D

In the January edition we have a major feature with a number of articles looking a 3D photography from the equipment, how to set everything up, taking the images and producing 3D photos. We will explain all of the techniques and there are quite a few, plus show you some 3D photographs. We have a project to make your own 3D glasses, but if you can find a pair of red/cyan (blue/green) glasses before then you will get the immediate effect. Recently there was a series of programmes transmitted in 3D on Channel 4 with 3D glasses given away at Sainsbury's stores. This used a different colour combination known as Colorcode and we will be looking at Colorcode as well as other systems so if you have a pair of these glasses or can find someone who has keep them handy for the coming edition.

The January edition will be live as usual the last day of December or 1st of January.

The January 2010 diary is now in the 'next month' slot with December moved to 'this month'. Both months have a lot of opportunities for everyone.

December is by no means a sleepy month and with the Christmas period and all that shopping everyone needs to do you will be surprised at the wealth of activities and photographic opportunities taking place. Some of them we have listed in the above feature, but some annual highlights include a lot of people dressing up in costumes and raising money for charity, we cannot stop giving. How about the Great Christmas Pudding Race on the 5th December where teams dress up and race around an obstacle course carrying a Christmas pudding, Santa is busy not only getting everything ready for the big day but also taking part in charity runs on Brighton and Weymouth Beaches or around the streets of Southampton.

There are also lantern parades such as the Illuminated Boat Procession at Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire, or the Burning the Clocks , in Brighton, Sussex and the Bargoed Christmas Lantern Parade in South Wales.

On the sporting front for horse lovers there is the annual International Horse Show at Olympia which starts on the 15th December, seven days of indoor show jumping with some of the finest competitors from around the world taking part. Or on the 31st the Nos Galan Evening Road Race, which takes place in Mountain Ash, South Wales.

Stonehaven Fireball Spectacular

Christmas Day when many of us are relaxing with our families there are vast numbers of people taking to the cold winter water, such as the Peter Pan Christmas morning swim in Hyde Park, London, or in Porthcawl, South Wales around 700 swimmers take to the sea, luckily they have to run down the beach first, so at least they've warmed up a bit before they hit the cold water. There are many more and we have listed them in the diary page. In Kirkwall, Orkney they have the traditional Christmas Day BA', a game of street rugby with around 200 men taking part. Want to see grown individuals, around 200 of them, get covered in mud, then on the 27th December you could venture down to the Maldon Mud Race in Essex. There are activities all through December culminating on the 31st, New Years Eve, in yet more celebration processions and sporting events. New Years Eve sees the start of the main Scottish group of Fire Festivals which take place throughout January until the beginning of February. The Stonehaven Fireball Spectacular near Aberdeen is one of these and has 60 people marching up and down the high street swinging giant, blazing fireballs another is the Comrie Flambeaux Procession where 8 huge torches made from birch trees are paraded around the village until they are thrown from a bridge into the river. Of course the Edinburgh Hogmanay is also a highlight of the Scottish year with many activities, processions and fireworks displays taking place.

New Years Eve also sees many firework displays around the country, some large events such as that on the Thames in London, but also many more local. See our article on Photographing fireworks to find out how you might go about getting some good images.

Disposing of the items you no longer need may be a case of looking at what they could raise on eBay, but in many cases it's not viable, it may be that this would require too much time or that the item value is insufficient to justify the postage. In many cases the costs involved in listing, end fees, Paypal fees, and postage result in very little being earned. By looking at the advanced search we can also look to see if other items of the same type are actually selling and if so for how much. There is not much point in listing items that no one is buying.

An alternative that is becoming very popular is Freecycling. This is just giving your items away and at the same time looking out for other items being given away by other people. Joining your local Freecycling group is free and there are no fees of any type involved. The driving force behind this is keeping items that can be used out of landfill. You will find people listing everything from bicycles, freezers, and other household appliances to broken items that no longer work. There is someone out there for nearly everything that you don't want, for example we listed a broken Sony Playstation 2 console which was not economic to repair but within a couple of hours we had two people who wanted it. Freecycling is a great idea, so why not think of the space that you could get back by Freecycling on all those odds and ends that are too good to throw away, but you no longer have a use for. We have a fuller article with links at FreeCycle.

We have an article in the series on what you can photograph in each month covering December. Even though winter is upon us and we have already had some frosts there is still a vast range of wildlife to be seen this month. Of course our favourite bird at this time of year, appearing not only indoors on our many Christmas cards, but also in our gardens looking for a winter feed is the Robin. With it's glowing red-breast it offers a sparkle of colour outside to cheer us up this time of year.

Frosts are also good for photographing plants, trees and surroundings giving crystal like edges to leaves, twigs, teasel and the Christmas Ivy.

 

Frost Covered Ivy

The Frost Effect

For those of us brave enough to challenge the cold, and not only wanting the challenge of getting up a mountain, if there is snow on the ground you could also have the photo challenge of trying to get a Ptarmigan, Mountain Hare or white coated stoat as they try to blend in with their surroundings over the coming months.

This time of year doesn't have to mean doom and gloom during the winter months. Just because it gets dark early and the daylight is not as bright as the summer months there doesn't mean there is nothing to photograph in our countryside, coasts and towns. In fact although we may find it a little cold, many of our native birds are still here and during these months will visit your garden if you decide to feed them, as their own natural food sources are dependent on the weather. As you drive around our roads making the annual obligatory visits to relations to join in the festivities then make sure you keep your eyes open as you may see the colourful Goldfinch feeding on the seeds of Teasel, and with the teasel generally being brown and flowerless, it allows the birds to stand out and be seen, sometimes swaying on top if the wind is up a little.