Recently, I decided that I needed a bit more adventure in my life, and so after an extremely short period of consideration, I decided to move to Alaska. Having arrived in Anchorage just in time for winter, I’ve had a crash course on how to shoot sports and outdoor activities when it’s 10 below. Actually, I’ve been shooting in winter and cold conditions for years, so it’s not that much different for me, but I figured that it gives me a good excuse to offer some cold weather outdoor photography tips.
1. Keep your face and nose away from the camera. If the air outside is that cold, then so is your camera. Pressing the bare skin of our nose, or any part of your face against the metal or plastic camera back for any length of time is inviting frostbite. Believe me, I know. After a weekend of shooting in the coldest weekend of the year, I’m sporting a bright red blister right on the end of my sniffer. If you’re not wearing a face mask, be very conscious about keeping your skin off of the camera body when you’re looking through the viewfinder.
2. Keep extra batteries on hand. Most rechargeable camera batteries will work fine in cold weather. However, they will drain more quickly, especially when they’re near the end of their charge cycle. Keeping spare batteries in a warm pocket, or inside your glove will allow you to keep on shooting with no interruptions when you first one dies. If you don’t have a spare with you, you can prolong the life of your single battery by taking it out of the camera and warming it up during shooing breaks. Even just a few minutes of warmth will extend the life of a cold and seemingly spent battery and let you get in a few more shots.
3. Be wary of condensation. Taking a cold camera into a warm environment will cause it to condense, which essentially means it will fog up and become wet. If you’re done shooting for the day, this will not be a problem, simply keep the camera in a warm dry place and let it gradually warm up and dry out. However, if you take that fogged up camera back into the cold before it’s fully warmed and completely dry, that fog will freeze and end your photography plans until you can take the time to melt and dry the ice off of your lens. If you must go inside for short periods of time between outings, keep you camera inside a closed camera case, where it will be surrounded by a layer of cold outside air. This will keep it from condensing. Be aware, condensation can also form just by pulling your camera in and out of a warm jacket pocket or even from your breath. Avoid breathing directly onto your lenses or camera’s LCD screen when it’s cold outside.
4. Keep the lens dry. There’s no reason you can’t shoot photographs under a heavy snowfall, in fact, all those falling flakes will probably make for some great images. Just make sure you keep the water off of your lens. A dry lens cleaning cloth or cotton bandana in your pocket will allow you to wipe off the water drops and melted snowflakes from the front element of your lens so that you don’t get those soft blur spots in your photos.
5. Stay warm. Extreme cold weather can cause shivering, fatigue, lack of good decision making and numbness in the extremities, all of which can seriously hamper your ability to capture amazing images. When shooting in the winter, take care to bundle up, wear good gloves or mittens, use chemical hand warmer packs if needed, and stay well fed and hydrated. Preventing frostbite, hypothermia or even general discomfort from the cold will allow you to stay outside and make those great winter adventure and outdoor images that wintertime offers.
Professional outdoor photographer Dan Baily teaches the 4-week course “Step Into Outdoor and Adventure Photography” at The Compelling Image.
