Winter is a fantastic time for photography. The crowds are thin, the air is clear and the sun is low in the sky making the good light better for longer. Here are a few tips I've gathered from years of shooting in the wintery Rocky Mountains.

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Part I: Get Comfy In the Cold

Being warm, comfortable and safe is a critical first step toward ensuring success photographing in the winter. The next four tips will help you stay warm and happy in the snow.

Dress Appropriately For the Weather

At the risk of stating the obvious, it's cold in the winter. If your fingers and toes are numb, teeth chattering and lips blue, you aren't going to be able to concentrate on taking pictures. The most important consideration for shooting in any conditions is to be safe. Dress appropriately for the conditions. In the winter when I'm active, I bring an oversized jacket. It looks like a down jacket, but is made of synthetic material which doesn't lose its insulating ability when wet. This allows me to dress lightly when I'm active, then put the coat on as soon as I stop moving. This keeps me warm in all types of conditions and allows me to concentrate on the task at hand, whether it is belaying my partner on an ice climb or photographing elk in the early morning light.

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Invest In Good Gloves and Warm Boots

A corollary to the first tip is to invest in good gloves and boots. Your extremities are the most susceptible to frostbite in cold conditions. You want boots that fit well so your foot doesn’t move around excessively and cause blisters. You also need to avoid boots that are too tight as they prevent your body heat from circulating around your feet, keeping them warm.

I like to bring at least three pairs of gloves whenever I venture out into the wilds. I usually have a thin pair for dexterity, a second for moderate warmth and a third pair of heavy-duty insulation for when it’s really cold. Keep the thin pair in a jacket pocket so they’re always pre-warmed when you need them.

Bring Extra Batteries

Nothing kills your ability to photograph a winter wonderland faster than a dead battery. Cold saps power from batteries much faster than warm weather. To ensure you can shoot uninterrupted, keep a second battery a jacket pocket, close to your body. As the battery in your camera begins to wane, swap the cold battery with the warm one from your jacket. As the cold battery re-warms next to your body, the power will return allowing you to continue shooting.

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Part III: Winter Artistry

Although the winter often seems bleak, dark and desolate it is actually a rich time of year to take pictures. Your favorite National Park is empty, there are few cars on the roads and the light is better, for a longer period of time, than any other time of year. I hope the following tips help engage your imagination and inspire you to brave the cold and snow with your camera to make great pictures.

Photographing in Bad Weather

Photographing in inclement weather, or just as the weather changes adds ambiance, texture and intrigue to your photos. Often, photographing on the cusp of a storm, either just as it approaches, or as the storm is breaking yields interesting light perfect for dramatic photos.

Be Careful Where You Step

As you consider your composition, be aware of your footprints. You don’t want to trammel your pristine photo of a snow bank with a pair of boot prints. As you approach a landscape you find interesting, walk in a wide circle around the photo until you find the best angle, best light and ultimate composition. You may also wish to shoot a wide shot first then get increasingly closer to your subject as you’ll have undisturbed snow for each photo.

Boost ISO When Shooting Action

In the winter, the sun is lower in the sky and clouds often obscure direct sunlight. These factors limit the intensity of the light reaching your photo subjects. To stop action with winter sports, you’ll need to boost your ISO or use “fast” lenses with a maximum aperture of 2.8 or wider. My favorite lens for shooting in lower light is the Olympus 35-100mm f2 lens.

For partly cloudy days, you can use ISO 200 for good results, for high overcast boost your ISO to 400 and when your photographing in the midst of the winter storm you’ll often need to boost your ISO to 800-1600.

Avoid the Sky

On high overcast days the sky is much brighter than the surrounding landscape. Even though your eye can see detail in the clouds, the camera will not be able to expose correctly for the foreground and the sky. Instead of interesting clouds, your sky will be a bright gray distracting attention from the foreground. Be careful to eliminate the sky from your compositions by selecting a high vantage or focusing on the details in the landscape. Save your expansive landscape compositions for another day with blue sky. Ideally when the storm breaks and clouds linger in the blue sky.

Photograph at Twilight

If you’ve been shut out from photographing your landscape or cityscape during the day due to overcast skies, wait for twilight and try your composition again. Between 30 and 60 minutes after the sun goes down, the sky fills with a beautiful blue color. This is a perfect backdrop for photographing a cityscape or a lonely cabin in the woods as the blue of the sky perfectly compliments the orange warmth of incandescent lights.

Armed with these tips, your Olympus digital camera and perhaps a thermos of hot cocoa, you’re ready to head out into the snow to enjoy the solitude beauty and photographic opportunities winter offers.

Note: Photography courtesy of Jay Kinghorn; shot with Olympus E-System cameras and lenses.