I love how it’s so quiet when you are outside, just after a fresh snow. While many people would head indoors, photographers want to get out and photograph in this environment. But how do you dress to protect yourself from the cold and how to do handle your gear when shooting in the winter.
That’s what this episode is all about, preparing for winter photography. Let’s get started.
I'm Terry VanderHeiden your host of The Nature Photography Podcast. You can find this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, Spotify, Apple podcasts, it’s in all the main podcast players. This episode is going to be a little different. I am also doing the same episode over on YouTube. if you want to watch it with video, you can find it over at my YouTube channel, Terry VanderHeiden. I'll have links in the show notes.
In this episode, we going to cover winter prep for photography from head to toe. Literally.
So when you are out in the cold weather you need to protect yourself. Not only can it be dangerous, but it can just be uncomfortable. And when you are uncomfortable, you won’t stay out shooting very long.
Before we start I'd like to put out this disclaimer. Everything that I talk about, except the gloves, I personally researched, purchased with my own money and use to make my winter outdoor photography easier and more comfortable. Now this is what I do for cold weather, you may have some better ideas, so be sure to let me know any suggestions you have for working in the cold. You I can email me at terry@imagelight.com.
At the top, I use a wool lined knit cap. I found this one that has a slight bill to it and it works pretty good at keeping snow and rain off my glasses. The most important part is that a good hat will keep you warm. A lot of heat loss can escape from the top of your head, so a good hat is mandatory. Get something that you can pull down to cover your ears when it gets really cold.
Now I happen choose to use my brain cells for creating photographs and not for growing hair… so an extra wool liner on my head is helpful.
Sometimes when it’s not that cold, I’ll use the liner under my wool cowboy type hat. This wide brim of this hat is great for keeping the rain off my face and I can also use it as a shade when looking through the viewfinder.
The ones that I use are made by a company called LiteFelt. Spelled L-I-T-E. F-E-L-T
These are comfortable to wear for long periods at a time in both the cold and in the summer months. I’ve tried some other similar products. one hat I have has a satin brim on the inside and I don’t care for that as much because the satin kind of cold against my skin. But if you have more hair than I do, it may not be a problem.
This type of wool hat is great because you can roll it up and pack it and it comes back to shape in no time.
Next is face and neck covering. A good first choice would be a Balaclava. Not to be confused with Baklava (the Greek pastry)
The Balaclava covers your whole head and neck and is long enough to tuck down into your shirt. They are usually made of a stretchy fabric that you can pull down to expose more of your face if you want. To find them, Just do an internet search for Ninja Clothing, you I'll find them.
Another product I use is called turtle fur. I bought mine at REI – but I am sure there are others available out there. The one I use is kind of like a fabric tube that goes over your neck.
This has a couple of layers of fabric and keeps my neck warm and especially keeps the wind out from blowing down inside my jacket. This is what you want.
The next product is a good outwear jacket. There are tons outdoor jackets to choose from, I use a rugged jacket that provides some cold protection and water protection. Mine is from Carhart. That is spelled C-A-R-H-A-R-T-T (two T’s) if you want to look-it up on-line.
I bought a jacket that is bit more roomier so that if I needed to cover equipment under my jacket or wear a vest, I can.
I do wear a vest. Currently I have a Patagonia down vest. Bought as well at REI.
Down, as you know comes from geese, and valued for its light weight, (light as a feather) and its crushable. Great for pulling out of pack to get some instant insulation.
The down traps pockets of warm air close to the skin, keeping the warm air in and cold air out.
The numbers that are associated with down, 900 fill, 600 fill are more of a designation of the “quality” of the down than how warm they will keep you. Essentially, the higher the number the less down is required to keep you as warm. A higher down number means less down, which will mean less bulk, so it will be lighter and easier to pack.
The down WEIGHT that you may have seen on outerwear means how much down is actually packed into the product. So, if you have a good fill quality number 800 and above, and a high amount of gram weight, say 200 to 300 grams, that will yield the warmest possible product.
But be careful, and consider that you may be upping your bulk when you go for that type of heavier outerwear.
Under the vest I wear a long sleeve flannel shirt, either a regular flannel shirt or occasionally ones that are fleece lined. The fleece lined ones are the warmest flannel shirts. These are great if you are hopping out of the car to shoot, or if you are just going to stand around waiting for the light.
If you are going to do any hiking that would work up a sweat, choose layers of clothing that is not cotton, as cotton doesn't wick away sweat very well. A better choice for hiking might be wool and synthetic materials that dry faster and move perspiration away from the skin.
Under my main shirt I like to wear a thin mock turtleneck that is actually from the golf industry. I like the FootJoy ProDry Performance Golf Mock. This is made from a polyester blend fabric with a little bit of spandex added in.
It has sweat wicking properties, so if you do perspire hiking to a location, the moisture will be pulled away from your skin. The idea here is that moisture is quickly pulled away from the skin and transferred to the other side of the fabric. Thereby keeping you warm and allowing the moisture to dry away faster.
Layering is the key to cold weather photography clothing. More layers create barriers to trap air and insulate the body in a better way. Also, you can remove clothing as you need to, to keep comfortable.
After the break, we will talk more about getting yourself geared up for winter photography.
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Next up and very important is keeping your hands warm. Just like all your extremities the farther out you go from the body, the more chance they will get colder faster. Plus, you are using your hands to touch other cold things like moving snow and grabbing icy tripod legs.
There are two schools of thought on gloves. First you can get two pairs of gloves. One thin pair called liner gloves, that goes under the gloves, then a bulkier pair that goes over that. With the thought that the thin gloves will give you more dexterity on the dials of your camera.
There is another solution, and that is getting photography gloves.
These photography gloves were sent to me by the “Vallerret” company. The version that I have are called the “Mark Hof 2.0” – they also make a version that is a bit heavier called the “IpSoot” if you are in extreme cold weather.
What makes these gloves special is the thumb and fingertip of each glove has an opening to easily expose your fingertip and thumb to get true dexterity for camera controls.
They also thought ahead and placed small magnets in the gloves to secure the glove tip out of the way while working with your exposed fingers.
Just open up the fingertip, do what you need to do and close it up after you are done.
This also eliminates the need for gloves that are touch screen conductive finger gloves when you want to operate your smart phone or touch screens on your camera.
I’ve used Touch screen gloves before and they work some of the time, but not consistently. So, these finger exposing gloves are better because of the true touch control that you have.
You can get these gloves at their web site, photographygloves.com, remember to order a size that is a little larger than their sizing guide says, for a better fit.
Now that you are covered from the waist up, you need to cover the rest of your body.
With pants, you want to start with something warm, like a thermal long john that covers you down to your ankles. You can get these in all kind of materials, but stay away from cotton on that base layer against your skin. I also use lined pants for colder areas or if I’m just going to be standing around a lot. This is where you can REALLY get cold, just standing around.
Over these pants you can cover them with water resistant rain pants or snow pants. This layer will keep you from getting wet. And getting wet is the problem since it takes much longer to get dry in cold weather.
On the bottom of my pants, I use gaiters. These gaiters snug around your calves, go under your hiking boots and actually can secure to the front lace area of your boots. But more on that in a minute.
These gaiters allow you to trudge through the snow and not get snow down into your boots. Snow in your boots is the killer. Having wet feet will ruin your outdoor shoot faster than anything.
Speaking of boots, I use waterproof boots made by Merrell. Mine I got as well at REI, and these boots start with a Gore-tex outer shell. Gore-tex is a very popular water proofing fabric and what makes it special, is its breathability.
Gore-tex fabric has in the middle of it, a very thin membrane that has over nine billion pores per square inch. These pores are 20,000 times smaller than water droplets. So, water cannot pass through this membrane. However, these pores are 700 times larger than water vapor, which allows water vapor to escape.
When you are perspiring, you generate this vapor. If it wasn’t allowed to escape, it would build up and turn into fluid. Fluid next to your body will get cold and consequently make you cold.
Some waterproof shells are Kind of like if you wrapped yourself in a plastic wrap. You would indeed keep water out, but you would also trap 100 % of it on the inside next to your skin.
So anything Gore-tex is great to have on. The only downside about GoreTex is its somewhat pricey, so it can get expensive to be completely decked out in Gore-tex. There are other breathable products that are out there other than Gore-Tex, but this is the most recognizable brand.
These Merrill boots also have a tiny hook built in near the front of the laces and that is where the gaiters we talked about earlier can hook on to. This secures the gaiters to cover your laces on your boots. So when shopping for good hiking boots, take look and see if they have a hook or some other provision for attaching gaiters.
On your feet look for a warm pair of socks, and I often use a liner pair of socks to aid in keeping the feet dry. Consider your socks when it comes to sizing your boots, as thicker socks may require you to go up a size in your boots.
On the bottom of your shoes, I recommend Snow Tracks. Or something like it. I consider these chains for your shoes. They attach with flexible rubber and the little metal spikes on the outside dig into the ice. I just keep these right in the door of my truck, so I can slip them on as soon as I step out of the vehicle. Because slipping ice while carrying camera gear is never fun.
Another option to wearing snow pants, gaiters and spiked hiking boots, is getting a good pair of chest waders. These offer good insulation against the cold and water proofness.
These, of course, are from the fly-fishing industry and the pair I have is from Reddington.
When wearing waders, you are waterproof up to your chest. So, trudging through snow, water tall weeds, just about anything, you are protected. This makes it a great year round tool to have access to.
Most waders go down to a neoprene booty and over that you slip on Wading boots. Mine are from Simms and I bought the boots that I could attach tiny, metal studs to the bottom. This gives you great traction though ice as well as river bottoms.
When you are looking at wader boots there are couple of things to consider.
First is the fit. You will be in these for long periods of time, and likely hiking with them on. So get a good pair that are comfortable and lightweight. Consider that they will be going over a thick neoprene booty, so you may have to get a size or two larger than normal.
There are a couple of options with wader boots. Since this product is going to be used year-round, Not just in the snow. You can use them to get all your water level shots in streams, rivers and lakes.
All were boots drain well as that is the design but It’s the sole of wader boots that make then different,
A very popular type of sole for wader boots is felt. It’s so comfortable, it feels like you are walking on a plush carpet. White they don't do good in snow, they grip really well on slimy river bottoms.
The problem with felt boots, is that they are outlawed in many states. That is because the felt takes time to really dry out and organisms can live on the soles of the those boots for quite some time.
The fishing industry has traced back the transfer of harmful organisms from river to river to the soles of felt wading boots. Which means, many states will not allow them in their water ways.
The solution is to do what I did, get the rubber soled boots that can accept the metal studs.
The only drawback to the metal studded boots, is that you can’t go walking into a store or a home that has floors that will be damaged by the metal studs. So, if you want to go inside, you will need to take off your boots and sometimes your waders as well.
A solution to that problem to get a second pair of boots, and don't put the metal studs on that pair, that way you can slip on the regular boots over your wader booties and then move about unrestricted.
There you have it. You are all dressed and ready for winter’s harshest weather. Now, let’s talk how to deal with your equipment.
Most professional and semiprofessional cameras and lenses are water tight, but check with the manufacturer before you subject your camera to the elements.
They sell little camera rain jackets if you are photographing in high moisture areas. These can completely protect your camera and lenses if need be. I have some, but I seldom use it.
If its snowing while I am shooting, I just drape a towel over the camera and lens to keep it mostly dry.
It probably goes without saying that you want to be careful about changing lenses and memory cards while out in the elements. Maybe going back to your car to dry off and make a change is the smartest way to go.
One of the cold weather issues we deal with is less battery life in the cold. Don’t be surprised that your batteries will deplete sooner than you are used to while in cold temperatures.
This is an easy fix, just bring along extra fully charged batteries and keep them in a pocket close to your body to keep them at a comfortable temperature until you need them.
Another battle that occurs only in the cold weather is condensation.
If you breath on your viewfinder, it can fog up.
While There shouldn’t be a situation for you to breath condensation on the front element of your lens, but it can happen. So, bringing along lens cleaner cloth is a good idea.
Condensation can also build up on your equipment from going in and out of a warm car or hotel room. A couple of thing to protect against that is to keep your car as cold as the outside by not running the heat and leaving the windows open when you can. You will likely be dressed for the cold, so that shouldn’t be a comfort problem.
When you come inside for the day, leave your camera bag zipped up and leave it that way until everything comes up to temperature. The condensation will form on the outside of the bag first and that’s okay.
If your tripod has been in an out of the snow or water, make sure to extend the legs fully and stand it up in your room to fully dry out. That way moisture doesn’t collect in the joints or tightening connections. You can also take your tripod completely apart if you think you need to get to dry it out even more so.
Planning ahead is the best way to go. Make sure you have the right lens on before you go out. This is not always ideal, but if you are going to shoot scenics in the river, have your wide lens attached. If you are going out to shoot foxes in their winter coats, bring just your camera with a long lens attached.
Make sure your batteries are fully charged and you have an empty clean memory card installed and ready to go.
Winter can be a great time to get out and photograph. A lot of times, animals are more interested in their next meal than worried about you standing over there with a camera.
The winter will also minimize how many people are out photographing nature just because it takes more preparation to go out and many people don’t want to put the time in. That means less people in your background or scaring off wildlife while you are out there photographing.
Nobody wants to be uncomfortable for very long. So, having the proper clothing and gear will a lot of times, give you a scene all to yourself.
So be prepared and get out there in the cold and wet weather to do some spectacular photography.