Winter is Here

Winter for us photographers offers so many great opportunities for some amazing shots. We get excited to get out and shoot but as soon as we are out of the car for that amazing sunrise if we are not prepared its a nightmare and a few minutes later we dont even want to take a photo.

“Be Prepared”

Before you get out “be prepared” for the conditions you will be facing.

Today i’ll be giving you some tips and steps you need to take to enjoy your time out there and get some awesome shots!

Enjoy the video from the cold mountains of Cyprus first and then keep reading below!

The Weather

There are some great applications out there for the weather, i personally use clear outside but any reliable weather app will do.

You need to know the temperature and the conditions (Rain/Snow/Ice/Fog…) before you are out on location

Be Warm

When you are out there the most important thing is to be warm and comfortable at all times so you can enjoy you time in nature.

When you are in the outdoors, you will spend some time standing still and some time walking, hiking and moving around. While you are on the move you will be much warmer than the time you stand still, and you need to do something about it. The trick is to use layering technique. This is when you use many light clothing layered on top of each other. This gives you the opportunity to take something off while you are moving and put it back on when you are still.

Keep your hands and feet warm at all times. if your hands are cold and frozen you will not be able to use the camera at all. Also is important to keep your feet and toes warm so you can move around freely. There are some heat patches you can apply over your socks in your boots that can keep you warm for several hours.

Batteries

When you are in low temperatures you will soon notice your batteries are depleting much faster than usual. Cold weather can affect battery performance by negative 30-40%. What you can do to compensate other than bring extra batteries is to keep your fully charged batteries warm. A simple way to achieve this is to keep the batteries close to your body for heat, try an inner pocket of your jacket. The warmer the batteries are the longer they will last.

If you are using a drone in temperatures below 0ºC make sure you land at 50% battery because it can go down really fast and you will have issues!

Take care of your gear

Some of the high end cameras are weather sealed and that means they have more resistance to rain, dust and snow than some lower end cameras but dont be fooled they are not in any way waterproof! Moisture and water will damage them if it gets inside.

If you get you camera from the cold outside weather and stick in a backpack in your car and turn on the heating in the car then you will cause some condensation to be formed on your camera and IN your camera and that will cause problems! I suggest putting your camera in plastic zip back while you are still out of the car and then put it in your backpack after you seal it off. That will cause all the contestation to be formed on the outter side of the plastic zip bag and not on your camera!