I've never had any big love for Winter and snow, and I'm not born with skies on my feet even though I'm a Norwegian.

This Winter I decided to see if I could gain some knowledge and skills photographing Winter and snow images. The local area have a lot of woodland, forest and mountains, but due to health issues the mountains are not an option yet.

I've been doing woodland photography for about 2 years, my love for this genre grown each day I'm out and about with my camera. I got diagnosed with arthritis the summer of 2020, this almost made me give up photography as I didn't see any future for me going on hikes in the mountain or any kind of walking. It was more of a coincidence I began taking short walks from my car and into my local woodland.

I've always loved nature, and this love combined with my growing love for photography gave me that little push I needed to get out. Now I'm out and about with my Camera, still locally but that's ok.

t's my way of disconnect from my daily struggle, both socially and work related. Sitting on a tree trunk or a rock surrounded by trees give me that much needed peace and quiet and the opportunity to recharge my battery.

I've always been attracted toward light and shadows, and this has become my main focus when i scout for compositions. I love to see how the light and shadow dances between the trees, sometimes they move fast, sometimes they move slow. Capturing this dance have become a obsessions for me, and the reason i have fallen in love with woodland photography.

This image was captured in December 2021 early afternoon at Christmas Eve. I'd made all the preparations for our Christmas dinner so I had a couple of hours to spare. The weather and the light was very nice and I decided to go for a quick visit to my local woodland, mainly just for some fresh air to clear my head, but also to scout for compositions.

Just as I passed these trees on my way into the woodland, the clouds cleared and i got some beautiful ambient light hitting the trees. I rushed to get my tripod up and frame up this composition, but before I was ready the light faded away completely. the sky was clouded so I decided to way to see if the light came back.

After about 45 minutes I was granted with this beautiful light again. The sun was shining on some clouds and the light reflected down onto this opening and these trees.

I've done some dodging and burning to bring out the depth in the image, and adjusted the colour tone a bit to bring out that warmth in the light and the tree bark.

I'm very happy with how the final image looks, it's a beautiful Christmas gift to myself.

I've called the image "Waiting" just as I did to get better light.

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