{Day 21} ~ Winter's Pull

Spring and summer hand it to you on  silver platters; gilded platters with flashing arrows that say THIS WAY TO BEAUTY. Spring and summer oblige you. There's almost no bad angle on washes of green, dew, sunshine, life.

This is what guest photographer and Shutter Sister Kate Inglis wrote on the assignment page for Day 21 of Picture Winter. Winter does not oblige you equally easily, instead "it requires you to go out there and pull".

 As a winter lover, I must admit that I not only generally prefer winter to summer but also find it much easier to photograph in winter than in summer. In summer, I just find that all the colours look so washed out and faded by the sun and the sun is always where you don't want it and too strong. Apart from the fact that when it's over 30 degrees Celsius and 80% plus humidity it's far too hot for me to go out anyway.

In winter, the air is fresh and cool and the light and colours - simply gorgeous. A world covered in white is so soothing to the eye. There are wonderful fresh blues and purples and lilacs in the air, the winter sky full of gorgeous shades of pastel blues, soft water colour sunrises and sunsets, the morning mists and fogs. Then all the gorgeous silhouettes of the bare trees. It is only in this time of the year that I really come to appreciate the beauty and variety of trees all around me. The sun is weak enough to allow you to take photos looking straight into the sun and still get great shots with a sky sitting like a star in the sky.

And then the frost! Nothing like it. Just simply amazingly beautiful. The dried dead flowers and plants look so interesting and fascinating if you bothere to take a closer look. And when they're covered in frost on top of it, they're just a piece of art made by nature.

I also love the post processing process with these winter close-ups, bringing out all the frosty wintry purples and lilacs even more.

Or is this maybe just mainly because it is only in the last months that I have begun to learn so much about post processing and working with textures and all kinds of effects? :-)

I'm a bit behind with Picture Winter and hopefully will manage to catch and keep up again, though I might have to just leave out a day or to. Only one more week to go...