THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED!
So, the new year is well under way and I’m sure that for a lot of you, spring and summer can’t get here quick enough! Sadly, we’ve still got a little way to go until then…
Regulars around here will know that I love winter. It’s a great time for heading out with your camera, capturing your adventures and making the most of all that the great outdoors has to offer.
Admittedly, the cold can be something of a deal-breaker for a lot of people – and it takes real commitment to abandon the warmth of home in persuit of great picture-taking opportunities.
So…
To help things along and encourage you to brave the elements, I’ve teamed up with my friends at Mycoal Warm Packs, to bring you the chance of winning a little creature comfort for those long, cold days and nights in the outdoors.
I’ve got 20 packs of their excellent Hand Warmers to give away, each containing two warmers which will last up to 7 hours.
All you have to do to be in with a chance is drop a few lines in the comments below. I’m interested to hear what you get up to, so tell me what you love photographing outdoors in winter, and why. If you have a story to share, then all the better.
I’ll be picking three winners at random. First out of the hat wins 10 packs of Hand Warmers, the second and third will each receive 5 packs.
The competition ends at midnight (GMT) on Sunday 21st February 2016 and the three lucky winners will be contacted at the start of the following week.
Best of luck – and I look forward to hearing what you have to say!
Hi Giles, How could I not enter this great competition.
I love to shoot at night and as you say it can get a little chilly at this time of year. I took this image on Christmas night 2015 overlooking the town.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1504/24133983701_9a2acce9f6_k.jpg
Our place is not far from the mast you can see on the left. It’s about 10 mins walk to the Chateau. The spire you can see on the right is the tip of the chapel of Saint-Hubert within the Chateau grounds where Leonardo da Vinci is laid to rest
In the early part of this winter, I had a Minor-ish operation to sort out an old sporting injury. It required 6 weeks away from work, I had to rest but also get as much exercise/movement as possible. Also I couldn’t drive so I figured the exercise rest contradiction would be best solved by slowish walks along the local canal near my house.
To add interest I set myself the task of snapping a kingfisher. I’m not a photographer – it was never going to be anything deserving the title ‘photo’ but I reckoned – with luck – I’d be able to get something good enough to satisfy cynics that I had actually seen one.
So day after day I set out, meandering along, forced by circumstances to devote time to looking around me.
On one occasion I saw a Heron standing in the shallows stalking fish. With no time constraints I could hang around watching for him to take a fish – I’d only seen that happen once before. Something caught his eye in the nearby undergrowth and he dipped into the greenery and pulled out a struggling vole/mouse and swallowed it. I’d no idea herons ate mammals.
http://i64.tinypic.com/eguydz.jpg
After many kingfisher sightings and half a dozen images containing a few dozen undefined blue pixel I did get a shot of a Kingfisher during my sick leave. Not good enough for the National Geographic but good enough that nobody can claim it’s a misidentified starling.
http://i65.tinypic.com/2lk8i1s.jpg
Since I’ve been back in normal life I travel the same path all the time and haven’t seen a single Kingfisher. When I was walking the Canal with all the time in the world, I never failed to spot one. (Or perhaps they migrate – I haven’t checked!)
So that’s my Winter Photography story. A cloud with a silver lining.
I’m a big fan of Iceland, which can be cold even in the summer (though not as cold as the name might suggest). One of the coldest shoots I did there was from a plane, having hired a Cessna + pilot to take me over the south coast of Iceland as far as Eyjafjallajökull where everything was blanketed in snow. Possibly my favourite image from the trip is this one of the mountains behind the infamous volcano, looking towards the east.
http://nickminers.photoshelter.com/#!/portfolio/C0000dEU.F9r5Th8/G0000x7WNLLH8SW0/I0000pU1H1RUZSis
It’s just wild countryside as far as the eye can see – no roads, no humans, just mountains and snow.
Taking this photo involved sticking my hands out of the window of the plane, which was travelling at quite a lick in sub-zero temperatures, so a pair of hand warmers tucked into my gloves would have been more than welcome!