How To Photograph The Essence of Winter
Wintertime feels like the worst time to capture any worthwhile images. First of all, if you use your cellphone to photograph, in lower temperatures the battery drains as fast as it takes for you to take off your gloves. With a DSLR, if you don’t know the right settings, your camera always makes the snow look grey (more on that later). Getting to photogenic places in the wintertime requires a 4-wheel drive, winter tires, and then a snowmobile or snowshoes, so basically a small fortune. Finally, good luck finding humans who are available and eager to be photographed in the winter, when all we want to do is spend it indoors, under a heated blanket, with a tub of popcorn in the middle, a pet on one side, and a Netflix remote on the other.
Hi, I’m Alla, I live in the woods of Montana and I LOVE to photograph in any season. I can get out of bed in my pajamas, scream at how pretty the outside looks, then quickly put on some winter boots, a hat, a sensible jacket, grab my already charged DSLR camera, and step into my backyard, which serves as my photography playground and I believe one of the prettiest places in the world.
I’ve lived on this piece of land for the past 15 years and still feel giddy and excited with the change of the seasons, whenever a new bird visits my garden, or whenever our new guests ask for a property tour of our self-built glamping wonderland.
Let’s dive into what photographing the Essence of Winter is all about and how you too can take your photos from boring grey winters to bright and interesting shots that make you feel excited to get out there in the colder months.
photographing winter’s Textures
From cracking ice, to fluffy, lumpy snow, smooth icicles, and melting/muddy snow - there are so many exciting textures that surround us during the winter months. The trick is to pay closer attention. You may need to get on your knees for some shots. You may need the help of a stool for icicle shots. If your eyes are sensitive like mine, you may need a pair of sunglasses and a cap to help you see better on those bright days. Also, if you plan on spending a while outdoors, you may need to lather on some sunscreen, because the ray’s reflection against the snow can be brutal and nobody wants a sunburn in the middle of January.
In terms of photography itself, there are two different filters that you can use on bright wintery days:
Polarizing filter
Reduces glare and reflections from snow
Enhances the contrast between the snow and the sky
Improves color saturation
Makes the sky appear deeper and more saturated
Decreases the amount of light reaching your camera sensor
Neutral Density Filter
Helps to create long exposures
Helps to smooth out water and draw out more color
Helps to highlight the intricacies of snow and icicles
Helps when areas are too bright for your desired camera settings
photographing winter’s details
While textures are also a type of winter detail, you can be more creative with this. Look around you for patterns like snow accumulating on fences, benches, or garden pots. Try to find plants that may or may not have been covered by snow. Look up, in search of icicles. Go up close to trees to see if you can creatively capture the needles or newly covered leaves or branches. Do you see any wild critters or their homes? Are there tracks in the snow or do your own footprints make for an interesting leading line or texture?
Photographing winter’s landscapes
While winter’s details may require a zoom lens to get closer to those details, Winter’s Landscapes are naturally more magnificent in a horizontal mode with a wider angle lens. My go-to lens is Fuji 18-55mm f2.8, but my newest prime Samyang 12mm is another lens I keep in the rotation.
For those days that are too cold and I won’t be walking around, spying details, I opt to just quickly grab the general sense of the winter day and one of the two wider angle lenses goes on the camera.
Some days the sunset looks incredible and I shoot a landscape shot.
On other days, the landscape in shallow aperture doesn’t look very inspiring, then a foreground object is important - like a solo tree, a building, or my hubby and I quickly jump in, and pose, before the blizzard blows the camera off the tripod.
““Wintering brings about some of the most profound and insightful moments of our human experience, and wisdom resides in those who have wintered.””
PHOTOGRAPHING WINTER’S PLAYFULNESS
Montana’s winter sometimes lasts from October to April and whether you want it or not, you have got to find hobbies that you can do outside. For some, it’s cross-country skiing, snowboarding, downhill skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, ice fishing, dog sledding, and many others. No matter the sport, you just have to remember to be well prepared with various layers, but most importantly proper gloves and winter boots. Frozen fingers and toes for me is the fastest way to run back inside, where it’s warm and the roaring fire helps to defrost in no time.
WARNING!
When you return home from your winter wonderland adventure with your camera, you have to be careful. Do not shock your camera from the cold outdoors to warm indoors. This seemingly innocent camera handling can cause condensation to form on the lens and inside the camera body. This can potentially damage your camera by creating moisture where it shouldn't be (just like a pair of glasses that get fogged up.)
Place your camera in a sealed bag to control the humidity change when returning from the wintery outdoors and try to find a spot that is cooler rather than warmer like an entryway or a foyer.
My mom-in-law always recommends taking images of our garden in the summertime for memory’s sake during winter, likewise, I think it’s just as important to photograph those playful or typical moments during winter.
My father-in-law, if you’re reading this - we appreciate you clearing our winter-covered roads with a snow plow (which reminds me that I should get a picture of him doing that for memory’s sake.)
PHOTOGRAPHING THE BEGINNING OR THE END OF THE WINTER SEASON
Here in Montana, the beginning of the winter season usually means the turning of the larch trees. Check out this blog post where I hiked and photographed a bazillion larches near Missoula, Montana and we visited the one and only Gus — the world’s oldest larch, which also happens to be taller than The Statue of Liberty!
Winter is not only the all-white winter-wonderland-looking time. Try to challenge yourself to find interesting shots of the upcoming winter season, whether it’s the snow-capped mountains in the distance, the foggy weather, or the rainy days can also be an interesting aesthetic.
The moody, foggy forest is my favorite, and seeing the sun’s rays peeking through the fog feels very magical.
Seeing the fog move through the forest makes you feel like it has a mind of it own, almost like being inside a horror movie where the fog is the villain.
Similar to foggy days, when the camera tries to expose for the darks and the shadows, it renders the fog grey. We may need to manually increase our camera’s exposure if you’re looking for a brighter image. And voila! Fog or snow turns white without the need for editing.
PHOTOGRAPHING WINTER’S MAGIC THROUGH BOKEH
Created by a wide-aperture lens, bokeh is the quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image. In layman’s terms, bokeh are the little circles that you see around your subject when you shoot in a small f-stop (f1.2, f1.8, f2).
Bokeh can help to emphasize your subject or be used in an abstract manner, like the first image in the carousel below.
Which bokeh image from the ones below is your favorite?
PHOTOGRAPHING ANIMALS AND PETS IN WINTER TIME
Since the passing of my furry bestie, Slonik two years ago, we haven’t made a decision to get another pet. What I do have are various wild critters walking around our land and that will do!
Some days I feel like Snow White with fearless deer walking past our windows and that’s where my long zoom of 70-300mm helps. Otherwise, forget trying to sneak up on them in the forest on their territory, they can sense you coming before you even take off your lens cap.
““Snow creates that quality of awe in the face of a power greater than ours. It epitomises the aesthetic notion of the sublime, in which greatness and beauty couple to overcome you—a small, frail human—entirely.””
PHOTOGRAPH ITEMS NOT COVERED IN SNOW
Your winter season may not get as much snow as up here on the mountain, but trust me, there are still plenty of interesting subjects that you can observe during the winter.
Some plants and objects may take on a new-to-you look, which you may take for granted during other seasons.
You may use the frost to create unique photographs or use a spray bottle, or foamy water and a straw to create your own unique designs.
WHEN THERE IS NO SNOW, OR NO INSPIRATION - LOOK UP!
I’ll be honest, not every day do I charge my batteries, clear out the memory card, and bring my camera outdoors just to walk around for an hour or two and feel photographically deflated.
Nothing inspired me today.
Nothing caught my photographic eye.
And then I look up, let the sun shine upon my rosy, wind-blown cheeks and I start paying attention to the clouds. Clouds can have some unique textures, patterns, and details and when combined with objects here on Earth - a picture is born!
I hope that the examples from this post have inspired you to get your camera, gloves, snow outfit, and winter boots and go outside. Winter time is the most magical time of the year, here in Montana, because of just quiet and peaceful everything is. The quiet is very obvious here in the mountains and it’s the perfect time to be one with nature and with your camera. I hope you enjoy photographing your next winter and if you do, let me know how it goes in the comments below.
