As you read the following lines below, you might be located in the southern hemisphere and it might be summer for you. Or maybe, just like me, you are in the northern hemisphere … here in Canada, my favorite season is just about to begin. Winter! Yes, I am in love with winter. To me, winter is the time of the year when my inspiration peaks. You might be asking yourself: How can someone in his right mind be in love with winter?
I have to admit that not that long ago, this was also the way I was feeling about the winter season. I was no different than most people. Yes, it is very true that the cold can be painful, we have to wear a gazillion layers of insulation in order not to become a human icicle, and our camera equipment will also take a serious toll because, just like us, these little technology marvels can also have some shivers. But let’s put all these cons aside for a while and admit that winter is truly wonderful! Still not convinced? Okay, allow me to explain a few points, and by the end of this article, you will also be in love with winter.
Shoot Closer to the Ground
Before I start talking about winter, there are a couple of composition tips I must mention. Tips that help me create my art on a daily basis. I often see photographers set up their tripods at eye level. Don’t get me wrong, for some scenes it is the way to go. But for me, I always prefer to explore the lower perspective. I can sometimes be as low as 10 centimeters from the ground. This will have a huge effect on how present and prominent the foreground elements will be in my composition. Details such as a 20-centimeter-wide water puddle will become much bigger and have a more impressive impact if I can bring the camera closer to it rather than at eye level. In the image comparison below, the body of water simply looks normal in the image on the left. Thanks to the fact that I was able to bring my camera very close to it almost makes it look like a river in the right image. Playing with perspective is a favorite of mine and will create a great impact on landscape images.
Another great reason why I love to set up my camera as close as possible to the ground is to minimize the mid ground, which rarely adds anything to the composition. If we compare both images below, the one on the left is a behind-the-scenes image captured with my backup camera. Holding the camera higher, Bow River in the mid ground looks more present than in my final image, which was captured a few centimeters from the ground. I always explore with camera height in order to make the mid ground less present. This will greatly simplify images.
Why Portrait Orientation?
After looking at my portfolio, a lot of people will notice that most of my landscape images are in portrait orientation. Why would one capture landscape images that way? I truly love vertical compositions because they are often much easier to read thanks to the fact that they are narrower. They often include fewer elements in the foreground, which makes leading lines more efficient. I love to take advantage of the lens distortion effect. Elements that are positioned at both ends of the camera sensor — bottom and top of the frame when captured vertically — will automatically look and feel elongated. This will not only make the foreground look more prominent, but it will also stretch the main subject (often a mountain, in my case), making it look slightly taller. I have a tendency to position the horizon near the upper line of third. To me, an offset horizon line will always make for stronger compositions, and, as I just mentioned, since the main subject will be in the upper end of the frame, it will be slightly stretched and have a truer-to-life proportion. And since my choice for a lens often is an ultra-wide-angle lens, compression won’t always favor proportions and make them look much different than what we see with our own eyes. I love to use the lens distortion effect to my advantage.
The image below is a good example of everything aforementioned. The narrow composition consisting of a couple of really strong leading lines all pointing to my main subject makes for a strong beginning. Capturing that image horizontally would simply have added empty white space on each side of the frozen body of water. Capturing the image vertically also played a huge role in elongating both the foreground and the mountain peak. It’s a win-win type of situation for me here!
Unusual Takes on Icons
Frozen lakes will definitely unleash a huge composition potential. I truly love striking ice features such as ice cracks, trapped methane bubbles, and tilted ice slabs, to name only a few. Walking on a frozen lake will not only offer a wide variety of foregrounds but also allow me to capture images of mountains from very unusual angles with equally unusual foregrounds. There is no way something like this is possible during the warmer months of the season. A frozen lake is like an open blank canvas and a true challenge to find the most beautiful foreground. By challenge, I do mean it! Finding the right arrangement of bubbles or cracks can take hours. But on a positive note, as opposed to photographing open water, wind won’t mess up a reflection. The struggle to photograph a perfect reflection during the summer or fall season is real. You won’t have that issue during winter as the water in lakes should, for the most part, be frozen.
There is definitely a safety concern when it comes to walking on a frozen lake: Is the ice thick enough to support my weight? That’s a question that will haunt many of us when it comes time to take our first few steps on the ice. The ice is generally safe to walk on when it is 15 centimeters thick. But how do I determine if it is thick enough? Do I absolutely need a tool to validate the ice’s thickness? The safest and most accurate way to determine the ice thickness is with the proper tools, but if you don’t have them, the ice thickness can also be estimated by looking at ice features such as bubble stacks or cracks. These features will always look three-dimensional enough to give a good estimate of the ice thickness. Just like in the image below, I will simply spot an ice feature that will allow me to effectively determine the thickness of the ice and then make a decision on whether it is safe to walk on. The methane bubbles being heavily stacked, like in the image below, shows us that the ice was well over 25 centimeters thick. Verdict: ice is safe!
Rich and Detailed Foregrounds
I am a real sucker for details. As a landscape and nature photographer, I nerd over texture! And winter is the real kingdom of rich and crispy details. Fluffy snow, ice crystals, frost flowers, snow drifts, just to name a few. My main focus will be to find something that will create a great impact in the foreground. And that something often is much smaller than most people would think. It doesn’t need to be big! A small frost flower 10 centimeters wide can definitely elevate a composition. Do you remember what I said in a previous paragraph? By simply positioning my camera very close to the foreground it will boost the size of small details and make them look much bigger.
This entire snow feature in the image below was one-and-a-half meters long and wide. The closest part to the camera, which contains some fresh frost flowers, was about 15 centimeters wide. The rich and warm side light from the setting sun played an important role in boosting the fine contrast in the snow, making it pop beautifully. The snow looks so nice and crispy, doesn’t it?
If Water Isn‘t All Frozen …
This one is a very personal and artistic choice of mine. Long exposure photography is always a very important aspect of being a landscape photographer. Every landscape photographer won’t necessarily agree with me here: I always start with an exposure time of 1/2 second. And then I will fine-tune depending on how fast or slow the water is moving. I will often vary my exposure time between 1/4 second and one full second. The main reason for that is purely a matter of personal preference. I love details, as mentioned in the above paragraph, and an exposure time of around 1/4 second will retain just enough detail for my taste. Some people like it all blurry and fuzzy; others will prefer no filters at all. I love to retain those gentle fine lines in my moving water. These lines help create more leading lines. Is there a good or a bad way to do long exposure photography? No, just different artistic visions!
Hiding All the Distractions
I always want my landscape images to be as clean as possible … why would I want to include elements that don’t add anything to my compositions? It simply doesn’t make sense! Sometimes, when I capture images, I might have one or two small distractions that can easily be moved away manually. But the reality of the situation is I can’t remove shrubs, plants, and flowers. Nature does things beautifully but, sometimes, there are simply too many distractions in a landscape scene. It is true that I could remove many of those distractions in Photoshop, but wouldn’t it be awesome if none were present in my composition? Of course it would! I am not lazy by any means, but if I can get it right in-camera I will be a very happy camper. And that is one of winter’s many pros. Since everything will be covered with some beautiful fluffy snow, most distractions won’t be visible.
Below, you can see very similar compositions of the same mountain but six months apart. Don’t get me wrong, the one on the left is very lovely too! But some of the vegetation looks a little bit messy. The image on the right not only looks much cleaner, but the snowbanks on each side of the water puddle created some really strong leading lines.
Contrasting Elements
Don’t get me wrong…the summer season is truly a wonderful season for hiking. You can wear normal clothes! Nothing beats hiking with only a pair of shorts and a light t-shirt. But from a more artistic point of view, most landscape scenes in my playground here up north are just green. It makes sense because there is a lot of vegetation and it will be at its prime. Everything will be looking very fresh and healthy. But I love elements to be able to contrast with each other. If you look below, once again, a same scene at different moments of the year. The image on the left was captured in September. It is an impressive scene that could very easily make your jaw drop to the ground. A real feast for our eyes when you are there in person. But in a photographic medium, everything is made of a ton of slightly different shades of green. We can barely make any sense of all this busyness. The image on the right, on the other hand, clearly isn’t lacking contrast. All the darker conifers are standing strong against a pristine white backdrop. Everything now makes a whole lot more sense! The whole canyon is literally well-sculpted thanks to the addition of the snow. The contrast helps the scene speak for itself. It now has a much more dramatic story to tell.
The Best Light All Day Long
As a landscape photographer, the ambient light will be what I will have to work with at any given moment. In most of the warmer months of the year, I will often say that the mid day light is very uninteresting. In fact, I rarely take my camera out of my backpack unless it is cloudy. The sun above our heads makes very hard and disgusting shadows. It simply isn’t very pleasing to our eyes. Winter light is very different, though. Due to the fact that the sun will be much lower in the sky and that, even in the middle of the day, it will give premium light all day long!
In addition to that, the weather systems in the mountains can be very unpredictable … weather can change by the minute, which means ever-changing light conditions. Low clouds, blowing snow, arctic bow, or sun rays could all potentially be part of the show. I truly love atmosphere! Some say that a blue sky is beautiful weather? Really? A blue sky? To me, a blue sky is the most depressing kind of light. I love it when Mother Nature has an attitude. I love it when the weather tells a story. I love it when it feels like the sky is about to fall! I love moody.
The image below is a very good example of all of the above. It was almost lunchtime and the sun was still very low in the sky. The atmosphere was also out of this world. This is what I call a Winter Wonderland!
… In Conclusion
In conclusion, I do understand that staying inside the house near a hot fireplace sipping a nice hot chocolate, is probably a much more comfortable option than capturing a few images in severe, cold temperatures. Even I will sometimes question myself about whether I should have stayed home instead of going out to literally freeze my butt. But those images I bring back home are always so rewarding. Winter season always brings some truly magical moments to me. You get that feeling that you worked hard for an image, but the satisfaction will also be there. Oh, by the way, I swear to God, I did not add that heart in the snow in the image below … it was there! Isn’t Mother Nature awesome? She sent the love back to me.
