Nature nominee

Frost transforms the landscape into a crystal palace, created by the Snow Queen's fancy to have a winter ball. The contrasts with cobalt blue skies on a bitterly cold day or the mists rising from the warmer earth are of a unique beauty. These photos were taken within a week of cold and clear weather conditions between Lancashire's Forest of Bowland, Pendle Hill and the western slopes of North Yorkshire.
I used a ND filter and a slightly longer exposure to get the colours to look as authentic as possible.

Irene Amiet is a nature photographer, conservationist and freelance writer from Basel, Switzerland. Having lived and worked on three different continents, her work has been influenced by different cultures and people’s co-existence with nature. Irene started her artistic career after spending time as a Field Rep for Rainforest Concern and Global Vision in Panama and South Africa where she was involved in anti-poaching initiatives, predator density research and community projects. In Texas, Irene was a long-term contributor to Coast Monthly Magazine and wrote a blog on nature and conservation for the Galveston Daily News. Irene started her much-commended study of avian motion and ballet, in stillness and flight, in the theatre of the natural seagrass beds of the Gulf Coast, often using a slow-shutter technique to paint with light.
With help of her photography, Irene has supported many conservation organisations over the years and contributed to initiatives such as the Texas Coastal Heritage Preserves, the New Big Five, the Endangered Wildlife Trust and most recently, the Lancashire Wildlife Trust with her work depicting owls and stags in the North of England, her home.