The Transformational Power of Winter in the Dales

It’s Sunday 10th January and the snow is melting in the dale and on the fells. Soon only the northerly faces that never feel the sun’s warmth in the winter will remain blanketed … but the first 10 days of 2021 have been the best for winter photography for the last couple of years (perhaps since we arrived) and it’s a reminder of the privilege we have to live and work in such a wonderful landscape, especially in these troubled times.

In particular it is the power of winter to transform the landscape; to turn the ordinary - a wall, a fence, a sheet of glass - into something extraordinary; to throw forward something otherwise overlooked; to create new and shifting shapes and patterns; to simplify the chaotic nature of the Dales into something almost graphical; that forces me out of bed before daybreak,  put on my warm coat, hat, gloves and wellies, and head out at the first hint of snow … plus of course it’s so unbelievably pretty! 

The image set below is shaped to demonstrate this transformational power; feeding troughs turned into space invaders, rough moorland into sand dunes, roads into lightning strikes, drifts into dreamy white mountains … and with the Winter Vortex forecast to arrive any day soon a combination of imagination and the ability to look will surely allow us all to uncover more hidden gems in our winter landscape.