Winter motif variety brings a ray of light into the dark season
Summer has bid an irrevocable farewell, the first cool nights, the leaves becoming more colorful and the days shorter: Winter will be here in a few weeks. The cold season is associated with a whole range of ideas and images – and not just in our minds: the supposedly dark season has many bright spots to offer photographers, as the associations associated with it can be translated into images in endless variations.
When it gets colder outside, we shift down a gear. Only a moment ago, summer drew us outside, but now we appreciate the benefits of a well-heated home again: The more it storms and snows outside, the more important warmth and coziness become again. This aspect offers a multitude of photographic design possibilities: Warmth from inside through hot drinks and from outside through cozy winter clothing illustrate it most strikingly.
© Left: Westend61 / Valentin Weinhäupl , Right: © Westend61 / Elena Medoks
In winter, we realize most clearly how important it is to have a roof over our heads and to be protected from the forces of nature. A simple little house in a bleak and barren landscape, with a winter storm brewing overhead, becomes a promising oasis of security that is associated with light, warmth and protection from the elements.
But it’s not just in the great outdoors, but also in the city that you’re glad to be able to call at a warm harbor at the end of the day, wrap yourself in a warm blanket and leave the uncomfortable weather outside.
The winter landscape is not only threatening and hostile, it also has its charm: when the first snow has fallen, the world appears transformed overnight. Making your first tracks through a fresh, glistening blanket of snow in the glistening sunlight is something that never gets boring.
However, the white splendor has the strongest effect on children. Mrs. Holle awakens pure joie de vivre in them – and we adults are only too happy to be infected by it, as it reminds us of our own childhood.
© Left: Westend61 / Irina Heß , Center: Westend61 / Rik Rey , Right: Westend61 / Ekaterina Yakunina
© Left: Westend61 / Frank van Delft , Right: Westend61 / Nataliya Lazaridi
However, winter-weary people don’t just fill up on light and oxygen while playfully romping around in the snow, but also with various winter sports: a tour through a snow-covered landscape offers recreational runners a change in their training routine, frozen lakes invite them to make elegant turns on two runners and skiers can look forward to rapid descents.
© Left: Westend61 / Michael Reusse , Center: Westend61 / Svetlana Iakusheva, Westend61 / HalfPoint, Right: Westend61 / Varbes
Great feelings and intense affection may not warm cold feet, but they warm the heart all the more. Because the fire of love burns particularly bright and hot when it is cold and dark outside.
© Left: Westend61 / Mareen Fischinger, Right: Westend61 / Frank van Delft
The amorous togetherness that we usually associate with the awakening of nature in the balmy spring is particularly suitable for photographically staging the “hot-cold” contrast in an original way against a wintry backdrop. After all, a good picture should above all arouse emotions – and what area of life is better suited to this than love?
As the photographer’s most important source of light, the sun moves lower than usual over the horizon in the winter months. Every ray of it becomes all the more precious, especially when it has been lost in the foggy gray for days. The celestial source of vital energy lends many a winter photo a very special aura: the sun makes the contours of a snow-covered landscape stand out strikingly and thus creates depth in the picture, draws long shadows in the snow, which can also serve as leading lines in the picture, and emphasizes structures that man has drawn into the glistening white with his technique.
© Left: Westend61 / Daniel Ingold, Right: Westend61 / Michael Reusse
It is no coincidence that we celebrate Christmas a few days after the sun has reached its lowest point. Since time immemorial, this festival has provided people with an occasion to bring light into the darkness of the winter world. Although the meaning of the festival of festivals has changed considerably over the generations, hardly anyone can escape its magic. Pausing in the hustle and bustle of everyday life and finding time for friends, immersing yourself in the glittering world of Christmas markets, choosing and wrapping presents for loved ones, enjoying mulled wine and sweet treats.
© Top Left: Westend61 / Vira Simon, Center: Westend61 / Tanya Yatsenko, Right: Westend61 / Daniel Waschnig Photography
© Bottom Left: Westend61 / Irina Heß, Right: Westend61 / Bonninstudio
Lots of ideas for creative photos that can stand out pleasantly from Santa Clauses and red-nosed reindeer – because they give the viewer an idea of the real Christmas feeling.
This certain extra is a factor that should not be underestimated in advertising photography. Especially in the weeks leading up to Christmas, consumers are exposed to a constant barrage of images and advertising messages with a winter and Christmas theme, which sometimes generates more weariness than interest. An image that arouses emotions instead of serving hackneyed clichés can attract attention at this time.
