Winter here in Estonia hasn't been very impressive this season and it has been talked about a lot. However, there have been a few times when beautiful winter weather has revealed itself and those who have been fast enough have had the opportunity to take part in it. I missed the first big winter arrival this season, but the second time I was ready and headed out into nature to photograph this winter beauty. A lot happened during these photo adventures and that's why I decided to write about it. A lot of positive things happened, but I rather talk about the negative things in this blog post and I believe that sharing my experiences from that night and morning will also give others a better idea of ​​what actually happened behind these beautiful winter shots
Straightforward weather forecast
Everything happened on the night of December 3rd and the morning of December 4th. I remember the weather report, which gave a very specific indication that something quite awesome was coming in terms of the conditions. Before that, plus degrees had mostly dominated and the situation was the same that day. It rained all day. Gradually, as evening approached, the temperature began to drop towards minus degrees and finally it started snowing. All of this meant that the snow was going to stay and paint the landscape white. Before midnight, the sky promised to clear up and the clear sky was promised until morning. There was also a nice morning light to expect. But my vision started to run in one specific direction. I hoped that with these low minus degrees, the bog lakes wouldn't freeze yet and at the same time the rest of the bog landscape would be covered in a beautiful blanket of snow. To top it all off, all this with a mystical starry sky! I believe that I have never made an easier decision before, whether to go or not. I had actually already made the decision in the early morning of December 3rd.
First setbacks

I arrived at the bog around 11 o'clock in the evening and I was very excited. All these ice-free bog lakes with snowy trees and other landscapes together with the starry sky provided many different opportunities for capturing photos. Before this trip, I had last taken pictures about 1.5 months ago and there had been a longer break. That's definitely why I had more positive emotions because it was good to be back in nature with a camera and at what a moment to be there! I got a lot of different shots, but I also had a few very specific ideas about what I wanted to take pictures of in this place and I didn't want to stay in one place for long. While walking on the road, I noticed that my headlamp was blinking slightly from time to time, but I didn't pay much attention to it. I thought that the hood of the jacket I was wearing would fall in front of the lamp when I was walking and that's why I thought so. After a while I found out that it was just a "nice" opinion and the headlamp suddenly went out in the middle of the pitch-black night. It didn't work anymore. I had previously used a headlamp that ran on batteries and I had extra in my camera bag. Then I remembered that the new headlamp was running on a storage battery and the battery had simply run out. No problem....I had the power bank, but what was missing was the charging cable, which was sitting peacefully in a drawer somewhere in my home. Since the headlamp could only be charged with a micro USB cable, there was no alternative and I had to accept the situation. Anyone who has taken pictures in the pitch dark at night knows how important it is to have a headlamp. For the next 4 hours I used my phone's flashlight, which was very annoying. The landscape was relatively wet and I had to constantly look where exactly I was stepping, and therefore the phone was in use all the time. When the phone went into my pocket, but suddenly I needed to use the light for some reason again, my hand automatically reached over my head to look for the headlamp. Every such moment reminded me that today's flashlight is in my pocket. I even tried to attach the phone to the breast pocket of my jacket in a way that would let the light shine through and I would have both hands free. Then it would be more convenient to carry it. It worked for a while until the phone fell out of the pocket into the snow. In short, situations like this actually consume a lot more energy and you have to constantly do extra work and of course, most importantly, you have to adapt to the situation.
Generally, I consider myself a relatively organized photographer, who, for example, has a exact place for each lens in my bag. Even full and empty batteries have a exact place in my bag so that I don't have to focus on where exactly some photo gadgets are located in the camera bag. I also always check before going on a photo trip whether the memory cards are empty and the batteries are fully charged and what else I need to bring, etc. This time it was on me that my headlamp was not charged or I didn't bring the right cable. It reminds me to do better next time. :)
Photos that were captured before the headlamp broke down



Good mood and next incident
Regardless of the headlamp saga, I actually felt really good. I remember thinking about that I wasn't going to abandon my photography trip because of that, and I took steps towards new locations where I wanted to take pictures. The environment was still really great, and if I remember correctly, the longer weather forecast promised plus degrees again for the coming days, and I had to make the most of this existing winter beauty. In the end, I didn't manage to capture the shots I actually planned to take, because my imagination didn't match with the reality of nature and I left those photographic thoughts to the future. But that wasn't bad, because as I mentioned above, there were a lot of shots to capture and all I had to do was able to just see these opportunities out in the field. I found an awesome spot where I planned to take a photo and started setting up the tripod until it made a sound "click". It wasn't the click that a camera makes when you accidentally press the shutter. This sound came from the tripod and one of the tripod leg locks had broken. Some kind of metal structure inside the mount was broken in half. The result was that when the tripod leg no longer locked at certain angles and when the leg went to an angle greater than 45 degrees, the tripod no longer stayed upright and fell apart. However, I managed to capture the shot I wanted to capture beautifully and there was no problem. The broken tripod didn't bother me much, because I had another spare tripod in the car and I was able to use it in the morning. I just had to capture as many shots as possible with the broken tripod at night. Looking for solutions required more energy and in some situations it was again quite annoying. I did feel a little like nature just testing me out and seeing when the man finally gives up. At this point, it is just unfortunate, because such things can happen at any time and completely unexpectedly. Fortunately, the tripod was just under two years old and was repaired under warranty. I would like to express my gratitude to Photopoint for their prompt and professional service.



Since it was already late and I wanted to allow myself a few hours of sleep before morning, I started to walk quietly back to the car. The hike back to the car took about an hour. I knew that on the way back I wanted to take a few more photos in a couple of places and that might make the hike a little longer. A slight frost was also starting to show. The temperatures had already dropped to about -6 degrees and my waterproof boots had started to form ice cubes around the laces from walking in the snow and wet terrain. On the way back, I stopped at a couple more places that had caught my eye a few hours ago. I also took some shots there, as well as random shots that gave me a better overview of the whole story when looking through the photos later. A few hours later I was back at the car and was able to warm up both myself and my frozen boots. I also got a couple of hours of sleep before I had to go back to the landscape in the morning.


Magical morning but with one more problem
I woke up early because I always like to have a little more time in the morning. As a rule, I always try to be on the landscape about 45 minutes before sunrise and by that time I have already searched out some specific places to take photos. However, this morning I had a plan to focus more on drone shots and colors were not expected in the sky anyway. Therefore, I was able to start my journey a little later. Of course, I still managed to capture some shots on the way, because the blue hour with the whole magical winter environment was something that I simply couldn't miss. Everything was great, just like at night, but it was just a little different.



The morning walk through the landscape was pleasant and peaceful. I finally arrived at the place I had planned to reach about half an hour before sunrise. I took the drone out of the bag and turned it on. After a while, the remote control indicated that I had not logged in with my DJI account and that there were greater restrictions on flying. I needed the internet to log in. The mobile network I shared with my phone did not work. In fact, I had no idea why it had logged out of mys account and I do not consider myself an expert because by then I had been a drone pilot only for about a year. I think the reason is that I updated the firmware on my drone at some point and maybe it was related to that. Another option is that my operator's permit was renewed. At this point, it would be good to hear the opinion of a specialist who knows more about this topic and has had similar things happen to them. I don't remember exactly, but the limitations related to this anomaly were that I could only fly the drone to a height of 30 meters and a distance of 50 meters, or vice versa. It was quite annoying when you were filming a scene and suddenly the drone stopped or started making strange movements because it couldn't fly any further. With the current options, however, I gave my best as I could and still managed to capture some photos and video footage. The morning light was great again and it was just a shame that I couldn't use its full potential.



Some places on the bogs were already frozen and the thin ice was covered with a light layer of snow. I enjoyed the morning as long as the good light lasted and took photos of whatever caught my eye in the winter wonderland. When the sun was already too high, I set off back to the car. I was met by a large group of foreign hikers with a hike guide. The timing couldn't have been better for coming here to witness this amazing winter beauty.




While driving home on the forest road, I had to make a quick stop because my eye saw an awesome winter pattern. In the lower part of the photo, the landscape was covered in snow. In the middle part, the were straight pine trees with orange tones. In the upper part, the pine trees were covered in light snow. All of these elements together created a very awesome environment and the photo looked somehow more special to me. In the past, I had actually thought while driving past this place that if something like this were to happen here in terms of conditions, it would be awesome. And it did. In the meantime, you don't need much. The right conditions, the ability to see the scene, and the photo can be captured in a short time. I imagine that I could even put this photo on a large wall at home someday! :).

What can be learned through this kind of photo adventure?
I like to ask myself in different situations that what I can and cannot control? I can control that before I go into nature, I can always check whether the battery of my headlamp is fully charged. I can control that I turn on my drone and check whether everything is in place and working. I can control that I maintenance my tripod regularly and take good care of it. However, I cannot control if the tripod suddenly decides to break or if some anomaly happens to the equipment that I have no control over. I remember that this was a time when life was rather busy and there was a lot of stuff needed to take care of. I have always, or at least for the last 10 years or so, believed in such things that the more you rush around in your life and deal with a hundred things at once, the more you go unnoticed and lose any ability to delve into things. You don't have time to remember and monitor different things all the time and then all kinds of things start happening that shouldn't happen at all. Life tells you to slow down, then you have space in your brain to think about checking the battery of your headlamp or drone before going on a photo trip. More being in the moment and enjoying it at the same time! :)
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