Landscape Photography — Waterfalls and Winter Woes
The world of winter landscape photography.
Landscape photography in the winter can be a terrible beast. Numerous challenges stand in the way of the perfect shot. Rain, wind, lack of colour, unbearable conditions and limited daylight. Despite this, some of the most beautiful landscape images can emerge from a winter’s day. Being in the right place at the right time is a massive challenge.
Planning is the key to success generally with landscape photography, but is especially the case in winter. The destination for your shoot should be planned around the weather. There is little point climbing a mountain in heavy wind and fog. When hitting the summit you will be disappointed and most likely a little uncomfortable.
A freezing winter scene with snow and ice will make a magical postcard scene. Sadly most winter days are not like this, especially in the UK and many other northern hemisphere countries. They are wet, windy, grey and cold. It makes landscape photography in the winter very tricky and requires some ‘out of the box’ thinking.
There are two good options. Firstly, you go minimalist and arty. Find a lone tree, a rock in a pool, a pier in the fog. Add some interest with a long exposure and these images can be beautiful and tell a story of the location. The story is vital. Get a feel for the place, try to understand it and translate that story into your image. Gripping landscape photographs are born from this type of artistic process. The story can be enhanced with a short written description of your experience including your artistic vision and any practical problems you faced.
Secondly, find somewhere with more interesting features. Cityscapes work well, or like in the video below, somewhere with waterfalls. A good waterfall shot is often taken in woods. An overcast day, with nice diffused light, will result in a better final image.
Nature then takes the lead. She will either provide the weather that has been forecast, or pivot and do something completely different. The later presented itself to me on my recent shoot at Ribblehead Viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales. My arrival at Ribblehead Viaduct was during the golden hour the weather presenting sunny spells, conditions that often lead to a good sunset. However, seconds later the weather moved in, harshly.
Settling for a moody long exposure landscape shot was an acceptable second place. Still the disappointment remained. Winter landscape photography is hard. It requires dedication and an investment of time where the return is far from guaranteed. Failures will happen often. But on some days, when you put in the work and the stars align, you will be rewarded with a very special shot.
Watch the story of my day that inspired this article.
Wind, rain and cold make for a challenging day in my latest landscape photography vlog. Waterfalls and a sunset in the Yorkshire Dales do not go as planned.
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