With winter approaching fast (for our readers in the northern hemisphere), it's time for landscape photographers to prepare for snowy scenes and cold sunrises. Though it can introduce a new level of challenge to your standard photography routine, photographing landscapes in the winter can also be very rewarding and will certainly add a new dimension to your portfolio.
In this video, we follow professional photographer Nick Page as he photographs fresh fallen snow after a recent storm. When driven by wind, fresh snow can create lovely textures and patterns that open up opportunities for wide angle compositions with leading foregrounds and a distant subject. The key to bringing out these snow patterns is low directional light from the sun, and they will not necessarily have much visual impact in overcast conditions, during blue hour, or when the sun is high overhead.
Luckily, during winter, the sun is much lower in the sky, even at high noon. These patterns and textures also make for interesting abstract subjects. Just trade out your wide angle lens for a longer focal length and search for interesting compositions in the snow.
If you are interested in learning more about winter landscape photography, check out 7 Helpful Winter Landscape Photography Tips.
Images used with permission and courtesy of Nick Page.
I'm too much of a tender-foot for camping in the cold! But, it did look intriguing.
He got some really nice shots. That morning sunrise was beautiful. And he didn't freeze to death during the night even though he wasn't able to run his heater, so he had that going for him. Which was nice.