Before we say goodbye to winter (hopefully!) and the chance of seeing some snow, the second of my periodic features on weather photography focuses on the white stuff that everyone loves to snap!

The Lune Valley near Lancaster, carpeted with snow.

A good snowy landcape really needs sunshine and a blue sky to make a great photo. More often than not there’s a grey sky and the image looks ‘flat’. Sometimes misty and grey is atmopsheric but makes getting the right exposure difficult. Experiment by manually overexposing.

The ancient church of St Peter’s at Heysham, is a much photographed beauty spot.

Making a good snow picture great may be about looking for something a bit different. I certainly got that last year, when I snapped the shot (below) of Lake Windermere covered with a layer of freezing fog and surrounded by snow. The lighting was superb in giving good contrast and rich colours… One of my favourite snow photos to date. 

Lake District winter scene from Gummers Howe near Newby Bridge

 

Longridge Fell looking down on Chipping village.

This Curious photo (below) was taken from Longridge Fell, looking towards Chipping village. The contrast between the snow covered hills and snowless valley caught my eye, as well as the part-covered sign in the foreground. 

A succesful snow picture might be more about what you do with the snow than it making a lovely landscape shot. This is a classic press photo; simple, tightly cropped and telling the story; always helped with the inclusion of an obliging  ‘small person’.

Playing in the snow.

In the next of my series of weather articles I’ll take a look at rain and flooding..

COMING SOON: More Photographers Ramblings. I’ve been out and about exploring two of our best loved and most photographed northern cities.