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| Winter Photography |
With the end of the winter season in the northern hemisphere regions, I am sharing my first experience with snow as well as some tips for Winter Photography. Although it may sound strange to some that my first contact with snow was when I was 26 years old, it is absolutely normal to people who lives near the equator, in hot and humid countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. Snow is a big deal to us!! A lot of people here live their entire life not seeing snow except in TV. So, I consider myself very lucky.
My first contact was in January 17, 2010. It happened in Minakami Okutone of Gunma Prefecture, Japan. It was a last minute call when my Japanese colleague invited me to join them for a skiing trip to the famous skiing resorts in Niigata Prefecture of Japan. He said he will be driving and an American colleague is going together. I made my intention clear, that I am there for my first contact with snow and to photograph winter!!
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| Winter Photography |
So, how did we ended up half way in Gunma instead of Niigata? (A little bit of Geography lesson here. Gunma Prefecture is located north of Tokyo, in between Tokyo and Niigata Prefecture)
Let me share some of the winter photography tips before I continue.
Tip#1: Wear gloves
Most of the time, holding your camera means exposing your hands to freezing or even below freezing temperatures. Be smart, be prepared. Wear enough and put on a pair of gloves. They will keep you warm enough for more photographing actions. I know wearing gloves means losing your finger sense. There are some gloves specially designed to overcome this where there are openings at the finger tips of the glove, just enough for you to sense your shutter button. Check them out if you are serious about photographing in winter.
Tip#2: Keep your feet dry
One of the worst thing that could happen in winter photography is to accidentally stepped into melted icy water and got your feet wet. Once they are wet, your feet will be so cold that you won't be able to last long outdoor. One of the solution is to be extra careful and carry a pair of spare socks and shoe. Another way is to put on water proof footwear.
Tip#3: Carry a plastic sheet to protect your camera and lens
Snow that dropped onto your camera and lens will melt quickly, forming water on top of your expensive gears. Protect them with a sheet of plastic cover or at least bring along a dry cloth to wipe off the waters on your gears.
Tip#4: Carry extra batteries
Batteries drain faster in colder environment. So, carry extra batteries as backup. Also you can keep the camera inside your winter jacket, close to your body when not in use to keep the camera warm.
Tip#5: Use Positive Exposure Compensation Setting
The white snow can trick your camera into thinking that the picture is over-exposed, causing it to choose a faster shutter speed or smaller aperture and resulting in under-exposed picture. One way to overcome this is to set your camera's Exposure Compensation setting to a positive value (example +1EV) and then set your camera to expose the snow. Fine-tune the exposure compensation value until you get a correctly exposed picture.
Tip#6: Shoot in RAW
Like mentioned earlier, winter photography involving snow can be tricky. If not treated correctly, you will get home with a bunch of over-exposed or under-exposed pictures. Shoot in RAW. You will then have ample space to increase or lower the exposure with your post processing software as RAW file carries more light information than a JPEG file.
Tip#7: HDR is a friend to Snow Photography
Although HDR post processing is not always perfect for snow photography, I find that most of the time after converting the picture to a HDR picture (often from one single RAW file), the picture looks a lot more attractive as the HDR technique is able to bring out the details of the white snow. See below two pictures for comparison.
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| Picture with snow without HDR treatment |
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| Picture with snow in HDR |
As we continue our journey downhill looking for help, I kept my camera's shutter working, taking pictures of the winter wonderland. The snow was falling gently onto me and everything was covered by snow! Every sight was breathtaking to me.
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| A house covered by snow |
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| Vending machine buried by snow |
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| A local restaurant |
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| Winter Wonderland in Gunma |
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| A bridge covered with snow |
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| Bamboo trees in snow |
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| Everything in snow |
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| We started seeing a small village |
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| Small village in Gunma |
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| Winter Wonderland |
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| Some houses |
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| Houses covered by snow |
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| House covered by snow |
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| House covered by snow |
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| Exploring the area |
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| Exploring the area |
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| Car covered by snow |
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| Car covered by snow |
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| They found a local ski area and they were excited |
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| The skiing zone was packed with cars |
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| People getting ready to ski |
As we were looking for help, we found a local ski area - Okutone Ski and Snowboarding Zone. My two colleagues were excited. Three hours later, help arrived from a car towing company and we managed to get the chains to the tyres. The car was driven to the ski zone and they started skiing while I kept photographing.
Stay tuned to my next posting, as I will share with you more pictures taken when we got up to the skiing zone in this remarkable and unforgettable winter photography trip.
I hope you benefited from my winter photography tips too.
Update: Winter in Gunma - Part 2 is up. Just click here to access the new posting.
