Winter Shooting

Well, finals are over and I am a free man for a few weeks. Hopefully I will have the chance to blog a little bit more in my free time.

For this Christmas Eve post I wanted to provide a few links for those looking to go shooting during the few days most of us have off. Winter is a great time to shoot and offers unique opportunities and challenge. I personally have had difficulty creating compelling images that retain detail in the snow and a have a pleasing tonal range across the entire image. White balance can also be tricky in the often cold winter light. Below are links to several articles ranging from how to capture the best winter images, great places to shoot for winter, and even how to best dress and pack for winter photography.

Top National Parks for Winter Photography

More Good Winter Shooting Locations

Capturing Good Tonal Range

Photo Ideas for Winter

Best Practices for Shooting in Cold Weather

Shooting in Extreme Weather

Taming Lighting Extremes

Black and White in Winter

In the spirit of the season I have also included a link to some neat images of Christmas trees. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Trees

Projects

With Thanksgiving last week and school projects this week I haven't had much time for blogging. I did come across some photos over the break, however, that got me thinking about using self-assigned projects to improve your photography. The links below take you to two sites where photographers have given themselves a personal project, and then created some amazing images to meet the project constraints. The first I saw for the first time over the break, and is a photographer who has taken images of Glacier national park over 100 days. The other is the well know project by Jim Brandenburg, where he only took one photo a day for 90 days. Both display some great shots from these photographers.

Chris Peterson: Glacier National Park

Jim Brandenburg: Chased by the Light

Self assigned projects are an excellent way to improve your technique and get interesting shots. More importantly, they help you to see a subject in new ways, and lead to more creative and innovative shots. For instance, you could assign yourself to take as many different photographs of a single tree as possible in 30 min., or lock yourself in a room in your home for 15 min. and take as many pictures in that time as you can. I have given myself a few projects in the past and have had varying degrees of success, but I have always come out of the experience having learned something about photography.

A good book that I have found for developing personal projects is Freeman Patterson's "Photography and the Art of Seeing." It is written more like a workshop than an instructional book, with suggestions every chapter for personal projects. I found many of the projects to be useful, but some of the photographic techniques to be less so. If you use it as a tool to develop personal projects, you should be able to get something out of it.