It seems like February has been one long round of wind and rain, storms Ciara & Dennis blended into one another with hardly a gap between them. Since Dennis it has started adding snow into the mix with the ski slopes in Scotland starting to be open (a huge relief for them) In England and Southern Scotland you have to feel sorry for those whose houses have been flooded. But what does all this 'bad' weather mean for us photgraphers.
It can mean an oportunity to stay inside with a cup of tea catching up on processing some images or tidying up all those folders which are full of images that probably should never have seen the shutter button being pressed. But making sure we don't delete the odd hidden gem.
Storms can however present some fantastic oportunities for dramatic images.
We see lots of images such as this one. Rachael Talibart (@RTalibart) & David Baker (@milouvision) have made shooting huge stormy seas with nothing but waves & the odd seagull popular. Check out some of the more recent work by the excellent Edd Allen (@EddAllenphoto)
Getting out just before or just after storms can also reap rewards as well. This image was just before storm Ciara landed about 3hrs after sunset.
Actually getting out in stormy weather can also produce images showing the power of the weather. In the slight lull between Ciara and Dennis I went to Fleswick bay on the west coast of Cumbria. I intended to get onto the beach so headed there 4hrs before high tide. Turned out the wind was pushing the tide that hard it just wasn't safe to venture onto the beach. If I had been caught by a wave on the beach it could easily have been game over. I didn't want to put myself (or the RNLI) in that position. Here are a few I managed to get from a safe position. The foam from the sea had made it look like it had been snowing on the cliffs.
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Scotland can be a great place to make images of winter weather. Again due care needs to be exercised taking into account the conditions, your own ability in the hills and the forecast for the next 6hrs. Even a short walk past the grey Mares tail last week saw almost 4 seasons in 4hrs. High winds, snow on the ground, bursts of sunshine interspersed with heavy snow showers.
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Loch Skeen
Tail Burn
Tail Burn
So if you do one thing thing this winter, watch the weather, get out when a storm is just about to clear and you could make some images you never thought you would capture. I leave you this month with two more images from The highlands, one just after sunrise and the other (30minutes later) is me heading back to the car with Scott Robertson - an excellent award winning highland photographer. (https://www.facebook.com/ScottRobertsonLandscapePhotography) in some testing conditions. Thanks to my friend Mark Littlejohn @mark_lj (renowned award winning photgrapher) for the image.
