What to Shoot in the Winter

Other than a 3 day holiday weekend trip to the mountains and a short one day trip, we have not been out shooting for a while. We have been taking a bit of a sabbatical and while winter has never been my favorite time to do photography, Steven says that when we are not out shooting on a regular basis, we lose our “eye”. I think he’s right.

So, what to do? A photography saying goes something like, “You might not get a great shot while you are out shooting, but you are guaranteed to not get one at all if you don’t go.” Time to shake the winter dust off and get going. Here are a few things we enjoy shooting in the winter.

Snow We live in an area that rarely gets a decent amount of snow, so this is a travel picture for us.

*Catching falling snow in the scene to get a great “in the moment look”.

*I love capturing images of people bundled up and walking in the distance in snow.

*Strong colors can be particularly effective in snow shots, like someone wearing a vivid read or blue jacket.

*Snow also cleans up areas that we might otherwise think too messy or distracting giving us new areas to shoot that we might otherwise pass on.

*This is a good time to make high key images.

*Micro photography of snowflakes is really unique (we have not done this, yet).

Ice

*Ice on waterfalls is particularly striking.

*Ice can create some really beautiful patterns as it forms. I enjoy seeing ice patterns in frost on glass and ice forming in still water.

*One thing I want to try is photographing a frozen soap bubble.

Great sunrise/sunsets Some of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen are winter ones, both in the mountains and at the beach.

Trees I love the way the trunks and branches of trees are exposed in the winter. Winter light can be very dramatic, especially how the angle of light creates long shadows earlier in the day.

Another bonus of winter is that, usually, it is there are fewer people around. For a landscape photographer, this is a great opportunity to get a shot without a lot of distractions.

Time to get up and moving and finding that next “great shot”.