7 tips for landscape photographers shooting in the winter snow

Not all of us are seeing snow just yet, and some of us won’t see it at all this year, but in a number of places it’s already started to show up in the environment. This video from landscape photographer Andy Mumford brings us 7 tips for shooting beautiful wintery landscapes

• Minimalism – A snow-covered scene presents unique opportunities for minimalism due to the mostly white landscape
• Texture – Look for textures caused by the wind and patterns in the snow
• Use bad weather – Bad weather with dull soft light can add a lot of drama to your scene
• Expose to the right – Snow is very bright, your camera may want to underexpose it to 18% grey
• Look after your batteries – Battery life decreases as batteries get cold – keep spares warm to swap regularly
• Keep your hands warm – If you can’t feel your fingers you’re not going to make great images
• Stay Warm – If you’re cold, you’re going to be miserable, it can ruin your trip and make you ill

For the point about keeping your hands warm, this is vital. Finding a good pair of gloves, or several, that allows you to keep your hands warm and easily operate a camera isn’t easy. Andy suggests a couple of items in the video that are very useful.

First, Rab Power Contact Gloves. These let you get some protection from the cold while still allowing you to use the touchscreen LCDs on your camera, phone and other devices. If it’s extra cold, then on top of these you might want to try Outdoor Research Convertible Gloves. These are more like mittens, but you can peel back the fingers and thumb without exposing your hands. If you’ve got the Rab Power Contact Gloves on underneath, you’re almost certainly going to have warm hands.

What do you do to help you shoot in snow and wintery conditions?