How to Capture a Winter Wonderland

Oh my God the SNOW HAS FALLEN. And we all know what that means: HOCKEY, SKIING AND SOME DOPE PHOTOGRAPHY SHOTS. Every season has its cool photos, but to me winter has some photos that are just flat out amazing. Recently, I've been studying hard on how to get the perfect winter wonderland shot. I've found that the New York Institute of Photography has some incredible tips to almost every type of photography and they've helped me a ton with writing this blog post (so basically I'm telling you to check them out).

A beautiful winter shot found on Dreamatico

Unfortunately, winter is a season that takes a lot more skill to take the perfect shot. There are many different obstacles to hurdle to take a decent shot. Unfortunately for all of us, most of the time we'll rack ourselves on those obstacles.

A large problem with winter photog shots is that the majority of the photo is one color: white. This is a very boring shot, so try to add a variety of things. This could be a person with some colored clothing, or add in some trees and other shrubbery. Without contrast or any movement, winter shots could be quite bland. Another thing that could add some color is either sunrise or sunset. Everyone loves sunsets (if you don't like them get off of my blog fool). Like the picture above, sunrises/sets add contrast and lots of color. In this specific photo, the sun adds some yellows and oranges while it also creates a nice contrast with the snow being different shades. Although to get a quality picture with snow, you can't just go out and straight up shoot. Snow is a b**ch, so you have to adjust to get the right photo you want. Without adjusting anything, the snow will turn out to be gray. To compensate and get the right color NYIP says to add 1 or 2 to your exposure level. This should level out the light and give you a solid white color. 

Another problem that I have already started to witness is that in the cold, batteries die like they have Ebola. They die sooooo fast it's unreal. I'm sure you've witnessed it with your iPhone or whatever, and it sucks. Picture it (no pun intended) you're about to get the perfect shot, and the battery dies. Wow. Just wow. What's the lesson here? BRING A SECOND BATTERY. When you're not shooting you could even wrap it in an extra blanket or something to keep it somewhat warm. 

So. Lots of tips for one season huh. Well, hopefully they pay off. I'll be honest I haven't gotten very good shots so far, but I'm still experimenting. Do these tips help? Please comment if you have other suggestions, reviews on my tips, or anything else! I'll hopefully be posting some of my winter photos soon!

Adios!