New Photos | Winter 2024
In keeping with the previous four seasonal photo updates, I’ve collected a few of my favourite photos taken during the winter months of 2024/2025. This is an opportunity for those visiting my site and reading my blog to see my latest work before it’s posted to social media in a format and style I want it to be presented in. There are no algorithms or preferential treatment here, meaning you get to see the photos I post in the way I want them viewed.
As ever, I welcome any feedback, comments or suggestions either by email, through my contact page or just as a comment at the end of this post.
Below are the previous four instalments of my “New Photos” series.
December 2024 to February 2025 - Winter 2024 collection.
In a change from the previous seasonal collections, I’ve started this one with a few photos I took of London during winter. It may not be apparent to everyone just how much the different seasons affects the photos I take in the city, and for sure, visually, the differences might be less obvious than other landscape photography subjects, but the time of year still makes a huge difference to how I go about taking cityscape photos in London.
The main seasonal factors that affect the photos I take are the weather conditions, the sun’s lower position during the day and where and when the sun rises and sets. I’ll expand on these as we go.
Photographing London
Although most of London requires you to obtain a permit(s), or at least formal permission to fly a drone, there are a few specific locations where my sub-250g drone can be flown freely and here, in front of the Isle of Dogs, is one of them. This photo I took of Canary Wharf highlights one of the key factors that affect my photos in London during the Winter….. the weather.
Blue sky days can be few and far between in the Winter, and the days are more likely to be cloudy like this. But to tell the truth, that’s how I like it. In the summer, I feel I am endlessly dodging the high contrast sunny conditions, which I don’t usually like to photograph in. Unless the light is amazing and the sunset/sunrise epic, I would much rather have an overcast, moody day to photograph the city.
I’ve recently started to lean towards a vertical composition using the traditional 10x8 aspect ratio. I feel I can emphasise the height and scale of the city better in a vertical format, and cropping down to the 10x8 aspect ratio makes the overall composition look more balanced than the taller, native 3x2 my camera uses.
Another advantage of photographing London in the winter is being able to get to the city before sunrise and take some photos while it’s still dark. Of course, I could simply hang around after sunset in the evening, but the advantage of taking photos early in the morning is that it’s a lot quieter, and I don’t have to contend with so many people around me walking in and out of frame.
The last point I’ll make about photographing London at different times of the year is where the sun rises and sets. You should get to know what scenes work best at specific times of year to capture the best photos. The photo above taken from the Horizon 22 viewing platform is a good example as in the summer months, the son would be setting way off to the right and this view looking towards The Shard with the sun setting just off to the right would not be possible.
Ok, so this panoramic photo I took of Canary Wharf from across the Thames is proof that we still get some cloudless skies in the winter and the fact that the skies over London are always grey is a bit of a myth really.
The Winter Landscape
This winter, I didn’t get out into the landscape of woodlands as much as usual. Instead, I spent more time photographing London, taking photos for my Timeless City project. I guess some things always have to give.
I did, however, venture out into the wintry landscape a few times and have shared some of the photos I took along the way. All the photos in the landscape section of this post were taken during a handful of trips to a local forest in East Sussex. This is my go-to for woodland photography, but with lots of open heathland and the odd lookout point, it’s also great for a bit of landscape photography.
I’m really pleased with these close-up icy scenes I found next to a small waterfall in the forest. I took three compositions of the ice, and with lots of relative depth, each one needed to be photo stacked to get the image sharp from front to back. I’m really happy with the resulting triptych below.
I’ve also posted a photo I took of the wider scene underneath, and the small patch of ice on the bottom right of the frame is where I took these close-up images of the ice so you can see how tight I needed to get.
Photographing the woodland
Along with some misty woodland adventures I had during the winter months, I also took this first group of four photos shown below. Sometimes, the eye sees what the eye sees, and on this cold but mistless morning, I was drawn to the stronger shapes created by some of the more prominent trees in the scenes I came across.
For these to work, I had to find a strong woodland subject with some character, set against thicker foliage to help remove background distractions, and with the ambient light being dull and gloomy, the resulting collection of photos all have a dark, moody feel to them.
A trip to the East Sussex Coast
Finally, a trip to the seaside. I decided to head down to the coast on a chilly February afternoon to revisit my favourite lighthouse at Beachy Head, followed by a few hours in Eastbourne to photograph some of the starling murmuration around the pier.
Once the sun had just about set and the starlings safely nested under the pier, I took this last picture of what I think is the most picturesque pier along the Sussex Coast. I like the soft, blue tones across the scene, but that subtle belt of colour in the sky adds a touch of interest and is a welcome addition.
With the winter months behind me, it’s time to look forward to spring and the colour it brings to the landscape. I’ve got a few adventures planned and some new ideas for projects that will help me focus on photographing my local landscape more this year. Time will tell if that all works out as planned but if it does, you’ll see those photos here first.
As I mentioned before, feel free to drop a comment below as it’s always good to hear your thoughts about the pictures I take and how they might resonate with you.
Until next time,
Trevor