As I mentioned back in February, January more or less passed me by this year, so my photographic winter didn’t last very long. Before and after that, there was once again very little snow and frost, which meant I only experienced a handful of truly wintry conditions. Most of those were at elevations above 300 metres, in the Sauerland region.
It’s a real shame that here in the lowlands of North Rhine-Westphalia we so rarely get the chance to photograph animals and plants in snow-covered habitats. I absolutely love doing that. Under such conditions, you also finally have the opportunity to create entirely pastel-toned images — something that, as a nature photographer in our part of the world, is rarely possible and endlessly fascinating to me.
I would include hoar frost in this as well, and in some ways I find it even more photogenic than snow — although I’m not particularly fussy 😅
At least there were a few moments with these kinds of conditions, and today I’m sharing a selection of images ranging from bird photography to a few nature details. I was especially drawn to photographing the “wild teasels” of the Ruhr area.
It was also wonderful to photograph certain bird species on an unbroken blanket of snow for the very first time — something I’d never been able to achieve before. My personal highlights were a vividly coloured European greenfinch and a very inquisitive black woodpecker.
I hope you enjoy this winter series 😊 The next blog post will be published around mid-April. I’m hoping to share some natural impressions from our upcoming trip to Sardinia with you then.
I hope you enjoyed the series!