Let It Snow

Unsurprisingly, Montana has been seeing some snow in the last few couple of days and it is sure chilly up here. Now that snow has fallen, it is one of the only options for photographers to shoot unless you can find a greenhouse. So in light of our new blanket of show, I figured that some tips on capturing snow photos from Craig Hull's article "Snow Photography: 15 Winter Landscape Tips"
may be beneficial. I am only going to cover the ones that are a little more important for this class. 

https://expertphotography.com/snow-photography/

Tip #1 Exposure Compensation:  For this, Over exposing by one or two stops will help you whites stay white and your highlights can be edited in post-processing. 

Tip #2 Use Flash Setting Instead of Daylight to Warm Up the Image : The flash setting will help try and warm up but be careful not to over do it especially in post-processing. Snow is supposed to have a blue tint since it is made of water after all.  

Tip #3 Rely on Your Histogram to Check the White Balance: 

Tip #4 Use Aperture Priority to Quickly Change DoF: Aperture priority mode is for the camera to auto adjust your shutter speed within the camera 

Tip #5 Post-Process to Bring Out Details in the Sky

Tip #6 Buy a Rain Cover 

Tip #7 Keep the Camera Acclimatized: try using a ziplock bag, it will hold less moisture than your coat will. And keep two charged batteries on you at all times. 

Tip #8 Stock Up on Microfiber Cloths 

Tip #9 Try a Polarising Filter to Limit Snow Reflection: From reducing glare off of the snow to darkening skies, it will help keep the color and light balance that you desire. 

Tip #10 Use a Lens Hood

Tip #11 Focus on the Contrast

Tip #12 Capture Snow Photography Bokeh: This is attainable by using a wide angle lens and focus on something other than the snow like a person or an animal. You want to make sure that the person is in focus and everything behind them is in focus as well. 

Tip #13 Dress in Layers to Stay Warm

Tip #14 Photograph in the Mornings to Capture Snowy Details

Tip #15 Don't Let the Weather Stop You 

Share Two & Critique

ISO 200 -- ƒ/5.6  -- 1/4000s

ISO 200 -- ƒ/5.6 -- 1/2500s

On The Fence

With this picture, I got a sense of rustic life and a feeling of calmness. I took this over at the Duck Creek Access to the Yellowstone river. To my surprise, there was no wind in this area to disturb the grass. The lighting was just right to not overexpose anything. The ISO was 800, the aperture was f/5.6, and the shutter speed was 1/2000s.

Ducks

This photo has to be one of my favorites that I took at the Shiloh Conservation Center two weeks ago. When I was walking around the park, there was a duck I had noticed out in the center of the pond Which I thought might make an interesting shot. So I hunkered down to try and get the shots and after multiple attempts to get it, I pulled my head up and noticed two ducks less than 3 feet away from me. In order to get this picture, I had an ISO of 400, an aperture of 4.5 and a shutter speed of 1/250. 

Cattails

For this photo I went to the Shiloh Conservation Center. I went this Monday and It was a little bit windy but I managed to capture this beauty. I had to compromise my aperture a little bit to ensure that my shutter speed was quick enough. My ISO was 1600, shutter speed was 1/4000, and my aperture was f/4.5. Also, I had to kick up my ISO due to the fact that there was a bit of cloud cover. I made this photo black and white to make the lone cattail a little more noticeable and dramatic. 

Macro-ing it Up

As you might have read in a previous post, I love macro photography. It seems like the only type of ideas that I come up with when shooting macro is flowers. Therefore, I did the google thing and found some more interesting subjects to shoot. The article that I found that gave me the most ideas was "Top 27 Amazing Macro Photography Ideas That Will WOW People!" by Lewis T. 

(https://tripodyssey.com/macro-photography-ideas/). I should probably state that for the record that bugs like spiders, centipedes, and things of that nature are out of the question for a subject! I am a typical woman when it comes to anything that is small and crawling. Laugh all you want but no way am I getting close to any bugs. 

Some of the subjects that Lewis T mentions in this article are thing that I never would have thought of. The first one that I was shocked by was the idea of denim. I mean sure there are different patterns on the pockets but I never would have thought looking at the different stitches and dyes. Though it's not nature it's still interesting. 

Water droplets were the first nature macro idea that I have not done before. This is probably because whenever I have done macro its been winter and inside a green house. But shooting Water droplets could be my new favorite, I guess we will see when I try things out. 

The last idea that I thought of that was not included in the article would be ice on a river or a lake. Living in Montana it seems as though this would be obvious for me, but it just struck me due to the fact that snow is currently falling....it's the first day of October. I guess I'll get my chance to shoot ice sooner than expected. I found this picture of Abraham Lake by Gavin Hardcastle an amazing example of frozen lake photography. If i were to find anything like this I would make an attempt to shoot more of the bubbles under the lake.