Do you need winter photography for your development?

Not just a seasonal hobby; there’s more to winter photography than meets the eye. Winter photography provides a solid foundation for your site development project – vastly increasing your plan’s approval chances. Read on to find out how.

Winter photography guarantees the worst-case scenario and is assessed from the most sensitive locations, in keeping with Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (GLVIA3)–which establishes best practice with completed Landscape and Visual Impact Assessments (LVIAs).

Changing outdoor elements can vastly impact the impression of a development scheme. What may seem harmonious during summer, where greenery can alter lighting (and provide natural cover), may raise complaints in the harsh light of winter, as trees are stripped of their leaves – exposing more of the development.

Winter photography ensures the strongest case for your site. Without it, it’s difficult to know how your development will impact the views.

Winter photography is often required to support technical and complicated reports such as Landscape Visual Impact Assessments (LVIA), Appraisals, and Environment Impact Assessments (EIA). These assessments help decision-makers determine the effects of a proposal and whether to accept or reject any applications.

In some cases, winter photography is requested by the Council, to make the worst-case visual scenarios for the site more apparent.

It’s also possible to complete winter photography for upcoming projects before most of the work begins. Having the images on file allows for fewer disruptions once works are underway.

Best-practice winter photography should:

• Tell a story and capture the full extent of the site, clearly showing the effect the development will have on the view. Sometimes, it might be worth including additional photographs that don’t show the site, giving context by displaying the surrounding features, like intervening cover on a footpath.
• Ensure the foreground doesn’t block the site unless it’s to demonstrate context.
• Meet the technical guidance, Landscape Institute TGN 06/19 Visual Representation of Development Proposals.

Your chosen photographer should also have used public viewpoint locations in line with GLVIA3, as well as public viewpoints on private land, such as National Trust locations and Scheduled Ancient Monuments.