Winter Photography: Be Prepared, Be Successful

Winter is arguably one of the prettiest times to be an outdoor photographer; winter white can transform an otherwise lifeless brown landscape into a magical wonderland. However, winter is also one of the most challenging times to be outdoors shooting. Frankly the biggest limiting factor in winter photography is personal comfort (for me anyway, I’m a wus). If you’re not comfortable you won’t be free to think and see creatively and certainly won’t want to stay out for the sweet light. Here is some practical advice, much of it learned at the school of hard knocks that can help improve your winter photography.

Shoot right after a fresh snowfall. By timing your photo outings with the end of a fresh snowfall event (especially important in the northeast and lower elevations) the landscape will look its best. The fresh snow hides all the dirty old snow and coats the limbs of trees in white producing some beautiful patterns and contrast. It also helps to tame issues with extreme dynamic range. When the landscape is completely coated in white the dynamic range is more compressed than when only part of the landscape is coated in white. You might not even need to use those fancy grad nd filters.

Bring at least two fully charged batteries. Keep one in the camera and the other in an interior pocket close to your body. When the camera’s battery starts to wane (due to cold) simply swap the cold for the warm battery. Place the cold battery in an interior pocket close to your body and allow it to warm back up. You’ll be surprised how well a battery will perform again once it warms back up. You can keep this rotation going for quite a while, perhaps all day.

Using a tripod in the snow is a real pain in the arse. If you can pack the snow down before you set up the tripod I recommend doing that. If the snow is really deep try pushing the legs down into the snow before fully extending them to the sides. This way as you push the tripod down into the snow, the snow will push the legs out the remainder of the way and ultimately you’ll get the tripod deeper into the snow. Otherwise, the outward force of the snow could damage the legs and you won’t be able to get as sturdy a placement.

Before bringing your camera back indoors or into a warm car place it in a sealed plastic bag. If you bring a cold camera inside a warm environment you’ll cause condensation to form on or worse inside the body and lenses. By placing it in a sealed bag first, the condensation will form on the outside of the cold bag and not your camera. Allow the camera and/or lenses to warm to room temperature before taking them out. If you leave your camera in a dedicated camera bag or pack, don’t open it indoors until the interior of the bag has acclimated, you’ll be surprised how long this can take (sometimes hours). All that foam padding that protects the camera also serves as insulation, not only keeping out the cold but keeping it in as well.

Hands can get cold super fast and wearing heavy gloves or mittens limits the dexterity needed to operate a camera. I like to keep a set of chemical hand warmers (aka Hot Hands) in my jacket pockets. I’ll then wear only a thin pair of liner gloves for full dexterity when handling my camera. When my hands start to get cold, into the pockets they go to warm up. If you don’t let them get too cold you can warm them up quickly and avoid the discomfort of numb fingers. When I’m done with the shot and ready to move on I put a warmer glove or mitten back on.

There’s only one thing worse than cold hands, cold feet. Feet sweat a lot, even in winter and when they do your socks and boot liners will get damp. When this happens there is almost no way to keep your feet warm, even in sub-zero rated boots. A lot of mountaineers and winter backcountry enthusiasts will use a vapor barrier sock to keep moisture from permeating their insulation layers. I’ve always found vapor barrier socks to be super uncomfortable. Here’s a tip I learned back in my ice climbing days. Before you put your socks on in the morning coat your feet with an antiperspirant spray (not deodorant!). This will prevent your feet from sweating and thus keep your feet dry and warm. Plus they won’t be stinky either!

snowshoe tracks on a mountain summit, vermont

Path to the Summit, Green Mountains, Vermont

Technical Details: Canon 5D, 24mm, ISO 100, f16 @ 1/20 sec. polarizer

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About Kurt Budliger (15 Posts)

Kurt Budliger is a full-time professional photographer specializing in landscape, outdoor lifestyle and fly-fishing photography. He is a frequent contributor to Vermont Life Magazine and works with a variety of other editorial and commercial clients throughout the year. His fine art prints of the Vermont and New England landscape can be found in many private collections around the country. Kurt teaches a variety of photography classes throughout the year, both in formal college settings as well as more informal field based workshops.

Tags: digital photography, landscape photography, nature, nature photo, nature photography, photo, photoblog, photography, photography tips, vermont, vermont photography, winter

15 Comments

Olivier Du Tré January 24, 2012 at 11:12 am

Wonderful tips Ian!!! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!!!
- Kurt Budliger January 24, 2012 at 3:17 pm
  
  Kurt here Olivier, thanks for the comment and you’re welcome.
Tania Mittelsteadt January 24, 2012 at 1:29 pm

Thanks for the tips !! In Wisconsin I most definitely will use them !!
Ian Plant January 24, 2012 at 6:00 pm

Sorry Kurt, apparently not everyone has gotten the memo about me adding you and George to the blog. Don’t worry, one of these days I’ll put up something and someone will say “thanks Kurt for these great tips!”
Derek Lyons January 25, 2012 at 1:01 am

I like to use a pair of gloves my wife got me for Christmas a couple of years back. They’re fingerless type gloves, but with a mitten top that flips over the fingers to keep them warm and that latch back with velcro while you’re shooting. The thumb has a separate covering that works the same way – I can operate my remote or cable triggers with only my thumb exposed.
Yardstick January 25, 2012 at 1:37 pm

Nice refresh of the blog, guys. BTW, when I clicked on the image thumbnail to “read more”, it did not load the article for me. I had to click on the “comments” link in order to bring up the full blog post. Just FYI.
- Ian Plant January 25, 2012 at 2:12 pm
  
  Thanks Yardstick, I noticed the problem with the “read more” link as well. I appears to be a problem generally with the theme I am now using on the blog. I’m not good at coding, so I will try to fix it but don’t hold your breath waiting!
  - Ian Plant January 25, 2012 at 2:18 pm
    
    Ha! I did it! Problem fixed! Sometimes I surprise even myself . . .
    - Kurt Budliger January 25, 2012 at 2:45 pm
      
      Just in the nick of time too, I was starting to turn blue! You did say hold your breath right?
  - Yardstick January 26, 2012 at 1:16 pm
    
    Seems to work now. There’s still hope for you in software engineering if that phtography gig doesn’t pan out. I can get you an interview.
Réal Rioux February 1, 2012 at 12:18 am

Thank you Kurt, also Ian and George! The three of you inspire me with your photos and stories. After seeing this summit photo, I decided to spend a night on Bald Face mountain in Maine. I was hoping to capture the colors of sunrise on the snow, etc. When I arrived at the parking lot, I put on my 30 year old Koflach boots and laced them up. When I tugged hard on them, the plastic top of the boot, the section around the laces broke right off! I ending up having to use my 30 year old insulated LL Bean’s boots. These boots didn’t have any treads left at all, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me! I ending up post holing through 12″ of crusted snow with my slippery boots until I got to the tree line where I spent the night. I was hiking as quickly as I could with my heavy pack, my butt was killing me! I just missed the sunset because it took longer then expected. In the morning, getting up early was not easy and I didn’t give myself enough time to look the place over. All in all, It was a good practice run!

PS, I like that antiperspirant idea and will give it a try!

Réal
- Kurt Budliger February 2, 2012 at 2:28 pm
  
  Great story Réal, way to get after it! I especially like the part about your 30 year old Koflachs, and I thought mine were old… If I kept track of my failed exploits I’d probably get too depressed to shoot at all. Keep after it and keep us posted!
  
  Kurt
Daveontrek February 12, 2012 at 6:38 am

Great tips Kurt.

To add my own re keeping your hands warm. You could put a couple of those chemical hand warmer gels in your pocket – the sort you shake to activate them. They should do the trick for warming your hands up and last most of the day – they might even be enough to warm your camera battery up again.
Serge Skiba February 12, 2012 at 11:50 am

Great tips. I have not taken my camera out in the winter b/c I did not want to ruin the lens or body.

The feet tip sounds very logical, and will now use this tip not only for photography outings, but for when I snowboard.

Yessssss!!!
Victor B March 2, 2012 at 11:30 am

Great article. I, however, have some reservation about going to the mountains right after a snowfall. The problem is that every time we have a snowfall here in the Alps the avalanche danger increases to a high level. And most of the terrain here is avalanche terrain, so one has to be quite knowledgeable in assessing the avalanche danger. Of course, this does not apply to gentle rolling terrain, which is all taken by cities, villages, and farm fields here.