Photos of Dutch Heather Landscapes Through the Seasons

Albert Dros

A few years ago, I published my (still very popular) heather series titled Purple Dream that consisted of images that portrayed the Dutch heather landscapes in August when everything turns purple. But the heather is not only beautiful when it’s purple — it’s interesting all year round.

Here is a new series titled Dutch Heather Seasons that shows the Dutch heather through the year from the regular purple shots through summer and the winter frost. This year we also had an unusual drought that caused the heather to turn red even. All in all, the Dutch heather is always a nice subject to photograph, especially during foggy mornings.

Fun fact: this entire series was shot on the heather fields around Hilversum!

Autumn 2018. The sun just came up behind the treelike causing beautiful soft light rays through the tree in front. Contrast between frost and autumn colours made for a beautiful morning.
Very early late summer morning in 2016. With fairytale conditions and the first sun glow hitting the fog during the early blue hour, it was magical to walk around.
August 2016. Heather season in full force. All the heather coloured beautifully purple with a nice sunrise glow castling its light on the fog layer.
Summer 2017. Green grass and trees. A foggy morning with a bunch of Scottish highlanders that you can ocassionally find in between the heather fields. They look rather scary but they don’t harm anyone if you don’t disturb them.
Winter 2017. Rare frost on the trees and basically everywhere on the Hilversum heather fields. These conditions are very rare and I was lucky to capture them during that winter.
Early summer 2018. In early summer the heather fields do not look that interesting. But there is always something to photograph in between the interestingly shaped trees.

Heather season 2018. An extremely foggy early blue hour around 6:00 AM in the morning. This year we had an unusual drought that caused the heather not to turn purple but red! I had never seen this before.
A unique moment when a shepherd with her sheep and 2 dogs suddenly came walking into my shot during a spectacular sunrise.
Winter 2016. A nice sunrise with beautiful cloud formations on a very cold morning on the heather fields of Hilversum.
Heather season 2016. Mid August when the heather was coloured at its best. With an amazing twilight glow way before sunrise and a setting moon this scene is almost unreal.
January 2017. Lots of frost on basically ANYTHING on the heather fields. It is very unusual to see all trees covered in frost completely.
August 2016. Late heather season with the first light from the sun rising above the trees.
January 2017. A very grey day where the frost on the trees lasted the complete day. Extremely rare conditions. I normally don’t like super grey skies but at this particular day it was very matching with the atmosphere. High key at its best!
Heather season 2017. Beautiful cloud formations during sunrise. This heather season was not as beautiful as the one in 2016 but the sunrises in 2017 during the purple heather were spectacular.
November 2018 : A very cold morning during twilight and some red storm clouds forming above the Hilversum heather fields.

About the author: Albert Dros is an award-winning Dutch photographer. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. His work has been published by some of the world’s biggest media channels, including TIME, The Huffington Post, The Daily Mail, and National Geographic. You can find more of his work on his website, or by following him on Facebook and Instagram.

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