The December winner is Rhona Ramsay. Rhona’s photograph shows a view at Delgaty Castle, near Turriff. We thought Rhona had captured a lovely image of a calm end of year winter scene. The sky and the light are particularly eye-catching, with the diffraction of the light through the tree boughs, strikingly caught. 

The end of a year is widely recognised as a time of reflection, a closing of a chapter, as it were. What I liked about Rhona’s photograph is the impression of a winding down, a pause before things start anew. 

In our area, the months of December, January and February can be hard going. Short daylight hours, long nights, and difficult weather can dull even the brightest of souls. It can be difficult to believe that even at this time, nature is continuing its daily, inexorable renewal, that hidden from view, life is continuing its eternal cycle to “bring back the hour of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower”.

December is the month when the sun stops its descent ever nearer the horizon. Little difference is noticed in January, but matters improve in February, to a more perceptible degree. The light continues to improve at a noticeable rate, thereafter, but the climate lags behind, as all North Easterners know.

Apart from being the end of a year, December is also the beginning of the end of the flight of the sun. So, in a real, although tentative way, December combines an end and a beginning. Is this, I wonder, the source of motivation that drove our ancestors to build stone circles in prehistoric times?

If you’re interested in learning more about each one of our images as part of our photography competition, then why not take a look at one of our previous submissions, here.