LFI WINTER CHALLENGE – A SELECTION

Damp, cold, grey – winter is not necessarily the season with the best reputation. It's also a time when adverse weather conditions make it tough to voluntarily leave the cosiness of your own four walls. We hoped that our latest challenge would overcome any discomfort: at the end of last year, we asked you to look outside and portray the most beautiful aspects of the frosty season you could find.

The numerous submissions we've received over recent weeks have clearly shown that there's some powerful poetry to be found in winter, when looked at from the right perspective. We were delighted by the detail of macro photographs capturing bone- chilling ice crystals; we lost ourselves in dreamily, atmospheric landscape panoramas; and we shivered intensely upon seeing night time snapshots of snowstorms. We were particularly pleased to see the diversity of camera models our gallery users took their challenge pictures with: from portraits with the D-Lux 7 and elaborately-staged photo shoots with the S2, all the way to the all-time classics, the M system; the whole range of camera models was covered.

While winter slowly but surely draws to an end, and we spend the next couple of weeks wrapped in blankets and sipping on hot tea, waiting for the sun to finally put in a longer appearance, we are presenting twelve pictures that warmed our hearts. Many thanks to all the participants, whose creative output has made the time waiting for spring much easier, and which lured even the biggest winter grumps out into the cold!