When BBC News 24 tells you “only travel if it’s completely necessary” it’s time to reach for the car keys and head out. So I called my friend Richard Owen of Severn Valley Canoeing who has hung up his paddles for the winter. After a quick chat we decided to fill up the 4×4 and drove off into the eye of the storm in Snowdonia National Park.

I didn’t really have a shoot plan, so once there, we just strapped on the crampons and headed out to try and get a few shots at the base of the Tryfan, I decided to use the axe heads and the swirling snow as the main focus to portray the concept of strength and reliability. Driving home was hilarious, giving me a opportunity to dust off my alpine driving skills and practice some worldclass overtaking manoeuvres, plus the chance to see some of Britain’s most appalling drivers in action!

Once the snow had turned into brown slush it was back into the office for me for a trawl of those hard drives and a jump back to summertime as I got a batch of kite boarding shots from Cornwall together to submit to Getty Images. So while I wait for the snow to fall in the Alps I’ll just have a flick through this Nikon catalogue…….