January brings the snow...

Autumn has passed, before I knew it, and given way to winter. Come to think of it, although it's only January, winter seems to be on the way out as well! So no more shots of trees in their fiery autumnal raiment, it's time to make the best of what winter provides. What does it provide, at least for the photographer? It can be difficult, depending on where you live. Over here in the UK, most of the time, one is confronted with bare trees, and little more of anything interesting. Sure, you can do a lot with bare branches, but what else is there?

Unless, of course, it snows! That's when every amateur (and pro) worth their salt go crazy, donning their cold weather gear to tramp out into strangely altered surroundings, shooting pictures of their homes, partners, children and the family dog smothered in the white stuff. And once those are done, one turns one's attention further afield, to the fields, roads and woods, perhaps on the way to work, or, more likely, because one is "working from home" as all transport links are down...

So what does one need to take half-decent pictures in the snow? Warm clothing, for one. Camera shake is a problem when you're shivering. And hands going numb can be a real problem - I've missed a couple of shots of moving things because I couldn't get my shutter finger to work! (And the agony when you thrust your hands back into your pockets and they start to thaw...!). Camera settings are important, too (if you're using a camera that has manual settings as an option, that is). Of these, the white balance is probably the most important. All that white snow, coupled with a typically grey sky, can do funny things to your image. Experiment with different white balance settings - some of them, depending on the ambient light, can help you capture a more realistic image than a "recommended" one. Of course, you might like the effects provided by a "non-realistic" setting - such as a cool blue tint, which immediately brings out the coldness of the surroundings in an image.

And it goes without saying that you need to be careful with exposures - all that whiteness again. The one advantage of snowy shots is that you don't often have to deal with overexposed skies or under-exposed foreground - the whiteness on the ground pretty much reflects what's in the sky - murky or dazzlingly bright. What if it's actually snowing, though? That's actually easier to deal with than rain - for one, it doesn't soak camera and lens as quickly and thorougly as water, so you can actually take your camera out for a minute or two before having to shelter it. And the relative slowness and size of snowflakes makes them easier to shoot. Depending on how long an exposure you set, you can capture an impression of falling snow with nice, slanting lines of white crisscossing your picture. The picture of the horses at the beginning illustrates just what I mean. That shot of mine, incidentally, was used by Ellenor Lions, a local charity, for their 2011 calendar.

However, don't completely dismiss your "auto" setting; on a recent trip to Iceland, it was so cold that I couldn't keep my fingers exposed any more, and had to put on my thick felt gloves with which all I could do was press the shutter release. So I set my camera to "auto" and hoped for the best - and nearly all the shots turned out surprisingly well, in many cases more balanced that the settings I would

have chosen - like this shot of Thingvellir National Park.


 

To sum up, when shooting in snow keep warm, protect your camera and play around with the settings. And don't be afraid to experiment! More on my "experiments" in my next post.

Chasing foxes in the morning

It’s been a while since I woke up at the crack of dawn. And even longer since I’ve managed to drag myself outdoors for a morning walk. But I did, this morning, camera in hand, and boy, was it worth it. It was a misty, cold morning, with few people around, and dewdrops on pretty much everything. I’m sure there are brilliant shots to be taken of dewdrops in the morning, but mine weren't anything to write home about...or blog about. Maybe with a better camera...an interesting observation, though – trying to capture the droplets at close range didn’t work as well as zooming in on them from further away. All about perspective, I suppose.

A few steps further on, I came across the horses that inhabit a fenced-off field beyond our place. As I fed one of them some grass (and tried to take a picture), something quick and red trotted quietly across the path. The fox!!

Now, about this fox. According to my other half, my reaction to it is like Spike the dog in the Tom and Jerry cartoons, when he can’t get his hands on Tom. Take a minute to picture that. My excuse is, I’ve been trying to get a picture of it for the last three years, and haven’t succeeded in getting more than a couple of grainy, blurred shots. He was just as elusive this morning, doing his usual thing, loping off into the distance and waiting, and running off as I got closer. I swear he strikes poses, just to taunt me - like he is in this blurry long-distance pic!

Anyway, to come to the point – the fact is, I really like taking shots of animals. And birds, and bumblebees and anything else that moves. They are almost invariably photogenic, and full of surprises.  If you want a better angle or pose, just wait a few moments and they change position. And you don’t have to be in a lean-to on the savannah; just go down to your local zoo, a nearby park, or even your backyard to get shots of some local wildlife.

Another interesting thing about animals is that they have personalities. No two of them ever behave in exactly the same way. I mean, you’d expect that in our close cousins, the gorillas and chimps, but others lower down the evolutionary scale show distinct individual traits as well. To go back to my friend the fox, his elusiveness is matched only by the tameness of one of his kin who drops in at a railway station nearby to accept titbits from passengers’ hands.

You do need a hell of a lot of patience, though. If you’re the fidgety type, or if your limbs have a tendency to cramp after a few minutes in one position, this might not be for you. But if you don’t mind waiting (and cramps, frozen fingers, eyes watering from looking into the viewfinder), animal photography is a rewarding experience.