Landscape photography presents many opportunities in the winter months! The second worst choice as a landscape photographer is to stay inside at home. The worst choice is to go out to these beautiful places unprepared for what mother nature is going to throw at you! So, let’s take a look at what it takes to capture images in the winter months without sacrificing your safety, sanity, or serenity.
Like the song goes “head, shoulders, knees, and toes”, I am going to start this post from the top! The head is where you lose up to 10 percent of the heat from your body, and nobody wants to be just 90% warm! While I will shoot many rainy days in the forest with a simple baseball cap on they aren’t a great option for when temperatures dive below freezing. Beanies are my go-to for when the snow begins to fall and cold winds howl! I do have a beard that helps, but if you are more baby-faced a balaclava or heavy scarf is wonderful for keeping the heat around the neck and face areas.
One last thing to remember is your eyes! While many will think of sunglasses as a key item when the sun is shining in the summer months, but even on a cloudy day in a snowy area, it can get extremely bright. There is a medical condition called snow blindness caused by the brightness of white snow reflecting all of the sun’s light. You can make a ghetto pair of sunglasses by poking holes in some paper or cardboard, but it is better and more fashionable to pony up a few dollars for 100% UVA/UVB blocking sunglasses. A second great option is ski/snowboard goggles as they keep you warm, help create contrast in the snow, and keep the blowing snow out of your eyes as well! Just remember the colorcast is going to make the back of the camera look a bit weird and it is a good idea to remove them to shoot and review images.
Layering is the most important thing when it comes to the upper body. Aside from that point, if you have a weatherproof outer layer and a moisture-wicking base layer then everything in-between is simply insulation. Make sure that if you are buying a new winter outer layer it is big/lose enough to comfortably wear things under it. As you do an activity like hiking you will want to be able to shed some layers before you arrive at a place to photograph and add them back on. Don’t sweat if you can avoid it because if your base layer and insulation get wet it will lose most of its value (unless it is wool, which is also heavy and not a great option).
Diving a little bit deeper, the base layers I recommend are made by companies like Under Armor which have done a good job of making thin compression gear that works great at moisture wicking while adding insulation value. I will often wear a simple sweatshirt on top of this being mindful of removing this layer first if doing much activity! You can also do a puffy jacket which does a decent job of being breathable and working better if it gets a bit sweaty, but it is also very expensive. On the outermost layer, I will choose a rain jacket on most occasions to keep it lighter when in moist pacific northwest environments like the coast and forests. On the mountain and in the snow, however, I will opt for the winter coat that has its heavy insulation in addition to the weather-resistant outer layer.
If my hands get cold it can quickly ruin an entire shoot. While sticking hands in pockets work fine you have to use the camera at some point! When it gets really cold, I have a set of heavy-duty gloves that do great at keeping my fingers at about the same temperature of a hot pocket in the microwave, but I lose all of my dexterity with them on. Having to remove gloves is not my favorite thing to do when I have ten frosty digits seconds later! Layers can help like a pair of mittens underneath, but there are even better choices out there. Vallerret is a photography glove company that specializes in specifically pointer and thumb fingerless gloves. They fold back coverings that work well even if they sell for a premium online. I have opted for a cheaper option in Palmyth which has made this type of glove for years for fishermen, shooting, etc… where having warm hands and limited finger dexterity is important!
I will also say here that hand warmers are a good investment for gloves that have pockets in the backs. I do find the non-reusable ones a bit wasteful, and Zippo (yes the lighter company) makes some high-quality refillable hand warmers that you can keep in your jacket pockets safely! I have used these on many a cold night of camping to keep warm as they put out a nice bit of heat.
As for the legs, I don’t pay as much attention because it is the last place that bothers me being cold. I have been known to wear shorts even below freezing so long as I have a warm sweatshirt! So, if things do get very cold, I will go for some thermal underwear or leggings in addition to normal pants or rain pants. I do like having rain pants for wearing over muck boots to keep water from immediately going over the tops of the boots and for especially rainy days in the forest. I also wear rain pants over leggings and sweatpants for keeping high wind, snow, and freezing water from completely freezing me out, but another good idea here is snow pants. I am a fan of layering though, and if I wore snow pants while doing any activity I would personally get overheated too quickly!
The feat is another vital area of warming that boils down to two things for me. The feet should stay dry and be encased in moisture-wicking materials. I like wool here because it is durable, warm, moisture-wicking, and keeps working even when wet! They are also super comfy just to lounge around in by a fireplace as a bonus.
Keeping dry is the next challenge and I have become a big fan of the value of muck boots. I am not loyal to any brand, but I will say the cheap pair I bought from Fred Myers work just fine. I have two pairs of them with a normal set and a pair that have a thermal insert and drawstrings at the top to keep some snow from piling in as quickly if it is deep enough. Hiking boots that are Goretex (I realize now that I haven’t mentioned this moisture-wicking breathable material enough earlier, but real Goretex is like magic and a solid investment in any part of your winter kit.) and are comfortable for longer hikes are great. Ideally, your boots should have a slightly higher top to help with ankle stability as well.
Snowshoes are also a good investment if you are comfortable with looking goofy when new to the activity and want to avoid struggling through snow that is waist-deep (which I have done many times and isn’t fun). This could also be a safety issue if you get buried in a snowdrift or get exhausted in dangerous areas from shuffling through the snow. Another issue to be dealt with is ice. Winter throws plenty of headaches at us, but needing one tool to that spreads our weight over a larger area and another in the same season that purposefully crunches down through the frozen precipitation is something I find funny! Crampons, cleats, or microspikes are important for safely traversing everything from a parking lot to a frozen lake to climbing mountains! Don’t forget these as I have personally avoided sliding off several 200-foot cliffs and into icy rivers thanks to these handy boot accessories!
Lastly, I would like to talk about some photography specific gear that I have found helpful. I know, this is a landscape photography blog and I am only just now getting to the photography part! However, there isn’t much that you need for specializing in your photography kit for winter photography. There are things like tripod leg insulators, lens coats, and other things to keep your equipment warm, but I have shot in well below zero environments with many different cameras without them. Cameras don’t mind being cold!
You will have to be mindful of moisture though. Fogging up lenses is easy to do when moving from outside to indoors. Don’t take your gear back outside if there is any fog on it because you will then have ice which is much more difficult to get rid of. You can help manage moisture with two things: time and dehumidifiers like silica gel packets like the ones in shoe boxes. They also have dehumidifying lens caps that store silica gel packets inside to keep lenses from internally freezing. You can buy them online too in bulk for cheap. Toss them in the camera bag to keep it dry while warming up and recharge them in the oven for a few hours or microwave!
A tall carbon fiber tripod is important for a few reasons. It is lighter for carrying on hikes as you’ll have plenty of weight already from the winter clothing. It needs to be tall as the tripod will likely lose some height from sinking in the snow. Carbon fiber is also not going to conduct the cold as much as an aluminum tripod. I haven’t had any issues using this type of tripod without foam sleeves because it doesn’t chill my hands while carrying/holding as my old aluminum tripod did!
While cameras don’t mind the cold batteries certainly do. There are a couple of tricks here to beat the weather. You can tape hand warmers to the outside of your camera body around the battery compartment which looks ridiculous and is a pain when swapping batteries. If your camera allows, you can have an external battery to constantly be charging, but it makes you less mobile, involves a cable that can fall out, and likely compromises the camera’s weather sealing. Lastly, you can buy more batteries and keep them warm in the interior pockets of your jacket. Warmed batteries might even recover their ability to function and you can rotate them regularly to keep shooting.
I would also like to recommend a type of photography backpack. Having something that is weather resistant with a built-in rain cover and opens from the back is huge all year, but especially in the winter, these are great features. I like back-opening backpacks for two reasons. They are safer for walking around a city (less likely to be stolen from) and when accessing the compartment and carrying it is less likely to let the elements inside through zippers or having to move the rain cover. I would also recommend having a separate compartment for clothing and a waist belt for handling the extra weight without hurting your back!