Winter Magic 3

Landscapes & Cityscapes

{ Winter Magic is a five lesson mini course of seasonal prompts and creative inspiration}

Landscape

Winter strips the landscape back to its bones. Summer's dancing flowers, golden fields, bushy hedgerows and canopies of leaves are gone, and what remains is the lines of the land itself. There are no gentle bucolic scenes in the winter landscape- its beauty is stark and minimal, quiet and even a little eerie. We are reminded that layers of the past lie beneath every field, wood and hill.

Here are some tips for taking photographs to capture the magic of the winter landscape:

1) Pay attention to line.

Look for shapes and outlines - the curve of a hill, the shape of trees, of hedges or a road winding into the distance. Use these lines to guide the viewer's eye around your image and tell the story of the scene that you see.

2) Think about tones

Tones can have a considerable effect on an image's mood. Will you choose a sombre mood and embrace the cool, muted tones of the winter landscape in your image, or will you seek out a flash of warmth and colour — red hawthorn berries, or a golden larch tree, for instance?

3) Look for detail

Skeletal branches silhouetted against the sky, a lone marcescent leaf on a branch, a tangle of old man’s beard, or patch of bright moss — delicate details are where the magic of the winter landscape hides. What will you find if you look closely? *