Last blog post I talked about playing around indoors, using orchids as a starting place.  This week, it is time to go outside and play in the snow.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when shooting in snow.  First, the camera reads snow (and everything else) as gray.  So, pay close attention to exposure (both when shooting and also when processing).  Try to keep the snow white, but don't over- or under- expose the rest of the image while compensating.

That said, there are several ways to approach shooting in the snow:  subjects covered in snow, subjects on top of snow, subjects that are wintery (regardless of snow).

Going back to front, here's an of example of a wintery setting:

Frozen FallsMinnehaha Falls frozen in winter.

This was taken several years ago at Minnehaha Falls (although something similar is available every winter).  When the Falls freeze, you get very interesting sets of icicles.  It is even possible to go behind the Falls, but that requires better footing than I was comfortable with, especially carrying a camera.  Note that the blue is both from the water and from reflecting the blue of the sky.

I took this on the way to work one morning.

Here's a different sort of wintery landscape.  This one highlight the snow on the trees.  I was especially fond of the way the snow sticks to the side of the tree. 

I love shadows.  They clearly show something that is not actually there.  They're real and fake at the same time.  They also show up great on/against snow.  One thing to keep in mind, though, is that providing an anchor point can greatly help the viewer understand what they're looking at (like the trunk in the top right corner).

Trunk and ShadowIn early 2001, I took a course on developing black and white photography. This image was scanned from the original negative from that class and fixed up using Photoshop.

Obviously, snow and winter can also work well in black and white.  Textures stand out well and any white in the snowy areas are expected.

Plants (and other things) covered in snow can also be interesting.  The yucca plants here become abstract and repetitive shapes, recognizeable but unexpected.

Or, finally, you can just play around with the snow itself.  Small mounds become hills and dunes.  Windblown textures abound.  Shadows stand out and define the shapes.

So, play around and see what else you can do when out in the snow.