WINTER PHOTOGRAPHY 

This is a preview of my new class offerings in 2023: "Landscape Photography." I am offering it to several Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (OLLI) throughout the country via ZOOM. I am also offering it as my 3-day field workshop in July at Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado. Contact me for more details if you're interested. 

Today, I will share just a small segment of "Landscape Photography"-- winter photography. The first thing to know is to dress warmly. If you are uncomfortably cold, you will not be able to get those great winter shots. You might not be able to take any shots at all if it is  I have had students go back to their cars to warm up while the rest of us were having fun on frozen lakes. 

For starters, do wear a winter cap and ear muffs. They sell hoods that cover the face (with eye openings) and ears. I like to wear a heavy winter jacket with a hood, in case of snow flurries. Good waterproof gloves come in handy. I also carry those very thin gloves and I cut holes for my "camera fingers," for when I get ready to shoot. I put on long johns under comfortable pants, then slip on ski pants over them! I can't feel a thing. I'm comfortable all day. Hand warmers and body warmers, made by various brands, can help keep hands and parts of your body warm. The last thing is good, calf-high water-proof boots. I slip my ski pants inside the boots and I'm ready to roll! Snowshoes I leave in the car on clear days. 

Okay, let's go shoot! 

In addition to photographic skills, camera know-how, and warm clothing, we also need the willingness to accept discomfort. It can be bitter cold in winter in parts of the country. Not everyone has the willpower needed. This first image was taken on an extremely cold day. And, yes, my brain that morning before I left the house was saying, "Do you really wanna do this?." It was worth it.

The time of day to shoot can give us different looks, or "feels." We can invite emotion when we photograph in the early morning, as in this next shot. I was there before sunrise and patiently waited until around 6:30 to get this shot. The warm hues along the horizon really added an extra layer of beauty to this scene.

  

Speaking of willpower, I hiked up to 10,900' to Lake Isabelle in the Indian Peaks Wilderness of Colorado. It was a safe, slow hike, but, again, well worth the effort. There wasn't a person in sight! 

One year, for a totally different experience, I spent Christmas day in Arches National Park in Utah. Santa was good to me that year! This is well-known and popular Balanced Rock.

The weather when I photographed this next scene was on my side that day. When seen on a clear day, you can see hints of Colorado Springs, the city, in the background. But that day, low thick winter clouds hid the city and gave me this clear shot of Garden of the Gods. Believe it or not, this is a city park. The recent soft snow looked like powdered sugar on these formations. 

I found this ranch and red structures at the foothills of these beautiful mountains just outside of Pagosa Springs, Colorado. What you see in the background is the entrance to Wolf Creek Pass. In order to get this composition, I had to drive off the main road, onto a narrow gravel road about a quarter of a mile or so.

This was another extremely cold day. My fingers tingled when I took my gloves off. This is a good place in my tip of the month to mention that when shooting in winter, the number one problem, or challenge, is how the built-in exposure light meter reacts to bright snow. 

I take these steps to increase my chances of getting great snow images, without them coming out washed out, or overexposed. I shoot on Aperture Priority. I override my light meter, nine times out of ten, from a plus 1/3-stop to a plus 2-stops, depending on the brightness and how much snow is in my image. Anything over 1-stop is severe, by photographic standards, but it's a must if we want to get the best snow images possible. The built-in light meter doesn't know that I don't want gray snow, which is what it gives me if I don't override it. 

This next image is a perfect example of when I simply had to tell the built-in light meter what I wanted, not what it thought I needed. It's about getting the right exposure, not the "correct' exposure. I created this image with film. I don't have the metadata for it, but I estimate that I overexposed this scene by about +1 1/3-stops to + 1 2/3-stops.

The contrast in this scene between the red formations against white snow really appealed to me. It was just a matter of deciding which of the various formations I was going to include within the four corners of my viewfinder, and where I wanted to place that mountain in the distance.

So, if it's snowing in your part of the world, fight the urge to sleep in or to stay in with a nice warm cup of coffee and go out there! Explore. Be adventurous and go out and get those great winter shots! Don't just be alive. Live! 

If you want a quick 30-minute "How-To" ZOOM lesson, contact me and I'll cover the key areas you would like to cover.

Have fun.