Santa Was Clutch This Year

Ayyyy what's up guys (and girls, maybe). How was your guys' breaks? If your's wasn't too great, maybe me telling you about how great mine has been will cheer you up! The only problem is that it's already over... So recently Santa came for a visit in good old Park City, Utah and was really clutch. This year I was pretty good so I got a ton of good stuff, mostly photography gear. I was super stoked, and I actually got to use some of the gear today while my brother had hockey practice. Sooo basically this post is gonna be on the stuff that I got this year... and the bulk of my presents were gift cards (I know pretty boring).

Photog stuff:
So I was on Amazon, lookin' for some lenses and such when I scrolled upon a picture of a tripod. It was fate: I NEEDED a tripod, badly. So of course I clicked on the link, and it took me to the site. This was a heaven combo pack: a normal tripod, a spider tripod (flexible legs) a remote shutter release, a lens cleaner and a monopod. I immediately brought out the Santa list and wrote down the name of the combo pack. Days later, I received the gift. It was sickkk and I was super stoked about using the setup gear later on. So later on really meant today. I hiked up in the snow with khakis and my Janoskis to get some cool shots of some sagebrush and PCMR. I used my monopod for this because a tripod really wasn't needed (in case you were wondering a monopod is basically a stick that supports your camera while you shoot, so shots don't come out blurry). I actually got some decent shots (which are quite rare for me). So for my first time out with the new stuff, it went pretty well.

My sagebrush shot...

Other stuff:
So I realize this doesn't really have to do with hockey or photography, but it's sort of needed to complete this post. So you know about my post about skis, right? Well Santa came through with those too. I ended up getting the Armada B-Dogs (164 cm). I absolutely love them. They also came with Marker Free Ten bindings which aren't too bad either. These skis are absolutely dope. Along with the skis (other than the bindings) came Saga Mutiny Mittens, which were a sweet bonus. Also, Santa came in with a Jiberish collared shirt, which was much needed.

I don't quite know what I'm looking at

.This Christmas was soo sick and to make it even better, God absolutely dumped snow on the Wasatch Mountains. This was great for both skiing and photography. To top off the perfect break, the IIHF World Junior Tournament was airing on TV from Toronto, Canada. There were teams from across the globe playing in the tournament to show off their skills and bring glory home to their countries by winning the championship. The competition was insane and was very fun to watch. I learned so much from them, even though all of them were under the age of eighteen. It was wayyy fun and made the break and Christmas that much better (even though Canada won the tournament). So hopefully you got a good taste of my break and Christmas. Hopefully my next post will be on photog! See y'all!!

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!