This shot was taken on a winter trip to Didcot, Oxfordshire. As I was driving around Didcot I noticed that the majority of the surrounding area had a very slight amount of frost, mainly to the East, South and North of Didcot Power Station, but to the West it was literally painted white with a very heavy layer of frost on every blade of grass, every branch, the roof tiles, you name it, it was covered in frost. I travelled through the westerly winter wonderland and really couldn’t believe how localised this was, I could drive a couple of miles to north and it was green (and chilly) country side, I could travel a couple of miles to the south and sure enough no frost there either…
Finally I figured out in my tiny man brain what was going on, the power station has cooling towers, the cooling towers pump out masses of water vapor (obviously) and with a westerly wind blowing the vapour towards east lockinge, cool air temperatures, this was causing this amazing Christmas card effect. When you get up close and personal to what you are shooting, it looks amazing, you end up with stacked ice on the east facing side of the object…
I’m planning a more seasonal trip to Ashwood Forest this week, near Ivinghoe as the blubells will be starting to bloom…