In honor of the fast approach of spring, here are a last few images from the snows a few weeks ago that I haven’t put up yet.
In other news, I’ve been busy renovating a house and haven’t had too much time to update on here or even get out and take photos. Hopefully that will change very soon!
(We also just got a puppy! More on that later.)
You can see more photos from this set here on Flickr.
Northwest Arkansas got a record amount of snow yesterday (almost 20″ in Fayetteville – over three years’ worth of snow in 24 hours!), so I bet many of you are going to go out and take photos in it. I thought I’d share some images I took a few days ago along with a few tips for taking photos in the snow. Here you go! (More images are here on Flickr, and I’ll be going out to take photos in yesterday’s storm today!)
1. Most importantly, don’t trust your camera’s light meter. Cameras expose to a neutral 18% gray level, and in doing so make snow look gray. If you’re shooting on manual, you have control over this. If you’re shooting on auto, aperture priority, etc., set your exposure compensation from +0.5 to +1.5 stops overexposed. This will make the snow white and your subject will still be properly exposed. (Use spot metering!)
2. Be careful when changing lenses. If it’s snowing, snow could get in your lens or camera, melt, and be generally annoying. Many cameras and lenses are not weather-sealed, so you should be careful that your breath doesn’t melt too much snow on the camera. Also, use your lens hood if you have one; it will keep renegade snowflakes from getting on the front of your lens.
3. When you come in from the cold, leave your camera (with the cold air inside it) inside your camera bag for a little while. This will give the camera and lenses time to acclimatize and will prevent them from accumulating moisture and fogging up.
4. Prepare for the cold. If you’ll be outside for a while, your hands are going to get cold. While gloves/mittens inhibit your ability to use the controls on your camera, fingerless gloves may be your new best friend. The warmer you’re dressed, the longer you can stay out – and the more great shots you’ll get!
5. Keep a spare battery in your pocket. Batteries aren’t as efficient when they’re cold, but keeping a spare in your warm(er) pocket will keep you shooting for longer.
6. Pay attention to white balance. Oftentimes, auto white balance can make the snow appear blue. Set it to a warmer setting, such as “Cloudy,” or set it manually to something warmer, maybe about 6500-7000K.
7. Shoot the details! If you have a macro lens, use it! Icicles, tree bark, even the occasional large snowflake are all fair game. Bonus points for any bugs that weren’t smart enough to go away for the winter.
8. Turn off your flash. Flash can make your picture dark and will illuminate every snowflake between you and your subject. Of course, this tip can be broken if you have a specific reason to use the flash.
9. Time of day is still important. Colors in nature are not plentiful in winter, and the midday sun drowns out most of what remains. Shoot in the morning or evening for the best colors! Frost on things such as plants is best captured early in the morning before it thaws. Often, snowy days will also be cloudy days. While the clouds act as a huge diffuser, and can make some soft (and very non-directional) light, the best times to shoot, in general, are still dawn and dusk. Getting out there before the animals and kids do will also keep your snow nice and fresh!
10. Look for contrast. An icicle on a white background isn’t interesting, but against a dark background it might be intriguing. This is especially applicable to black and white photography. (If you’re lucky enough to have a blue sky, use it!)
Last Friday, after a few days of being snowed in, cabin fever got the best of us. Darby dressed up and Mark and Dana of Stone Ridge Photographers and I went out and took some photos of her in the woods around the house. She braved the cold for quite a while and, a few pink fingers later, we came up with some great images. Here’s a taste of them; you can see the rest of mine here on Flickr!
Last week we had what southerners would call a “snow day” and northerners would have simply called “a snow.” On the second day, I went out there for about an hour, hiked down the hill and back, and here’s what I came up with. You can see a few more here on Flickr.
I took some quick portraits at Lake Fayetteville a couple of weeks ago, and hung around an extra 10 minutes or so snapping a few nature shots for myself. I need to do that more often! Here are a few, and you’ll find a few more here on Flickr.
(Note: you may have seen these as my Daily Photo–if not, you should subscribe to the e-mail list!)
Last week, a friend from New York who I met on my study abroad trip to Costa Rica in 2009 stayed with us for a couple of days on his way to move to New Mexico. Last Tuesday, we took a day trip to Kyle’s Landing on the Buffalo River and took a quick day hike to Hemmed-in Hollow; he had never been to Arkansas or the Ozarks, so of course I had to show him what it was like. I hadn’t been there via that route in the winter before, and didn’t realize that crossing the river eight times would be so incredibly cold and painful. It was. But, in the end, it was worth it–even though the waterfall was nothing more than a trickle. I only snapped a few photos, and here are some – the rest are here on Flickr!
So, we’ve had some crazy weather in Fayetteville these past few days. School let out (yes, the University actually closed!) by 5 p.m. on Thursday and was closed all day Friday, and today things didn’t open up until 10 a.m. We had about 8 inches of snow as well as plenty of ice/freezing rain/sleet. Good enough to throw any ole Arkansas city into turmoil. (There was not a single loaf of bread left in the Wal-Mart on 6th Street the night before it hit.) Luckily this year there weren’t many power outages or trees down–it was a light freeze compared to last year’s fiasco.
That said, I took a few photos, and it was a blast. Here are a few of them, and you can find the rest of them on my Flickr page (see “Galleries” above).
I’ve also discovered Lightroom presets. Presets are Adobe Lightroom’s version of actions for Photoshop, except that you have more freedom in tweaking them afterwards/during the process than you have in Photoshop, and you can preview them before you hit ‘go.’ I like them. I’ve tried out a few of them here, since there are only so many ways to photograph the same icicles before they start looking all the same. There are plenty of free ones–try http://www.presetsheaven.com/ as an example. Who uses these? Let me know your successes (or failures).
(And by the way: I don’t want to start any Lightroom vs. Aperture feuds, but…Lightroom has my vote.)
A robin lands on a tree after an ice storm in Northwest Arkansas. January 2010.
