I’ve posted a few images from this shoot already here, but the whole shoot deserved a post too. Because I live in Utah, I shoot in the snow a lot. Here are a few things I’ve learned from lots of experience freezing and shooting during the snowy months, which in the Utah Mountains, can be anywhere from late September to April, but usually from December-February.

1. Wear fingerless gloves on your right hand and full fingered gloves on your left hand since all it does is work your lens. Your fingers need to be nimble and its hard to concentrate if they move slowly because you can’t feel them.
2. Wear TALL waterproof boots. Snow can get REALLY deep in some of the best spots. I’ve done an hour long shoot in 15 degree weather with completely wet feet because my boots were a little too short and not actually waterproof. That’s the kind of mistake you only make once.
3. Never point your lens toward the sky so it doesn’t get snow flakes on it. One snowflake can ruin lots of frames (if you don’t notice right away). So be careful to keep your lens forward or down, and double check that it’s not wet throughout the session.
4. Bring a lens wipe for when you accidentally point your lens up. I never realized how much my lens points up until I started shooting in the snow. It’s a hard habit to break, so bring something for your lens when you mess up.
5. Over Shoot. Snowflakes can really mess with your focus, especially when you have your camera set to use one focal point. Take more pictures than you normally would to make sure your focus point isn’t blocked by a snowflake. OR even if you nail your focus, sometimes a big snowflake can completely cover someones eye or do something else distracting, so hold that shutter finger down when you see that magic moment you want to capture.
6. Something I wish I would have brought to my last shoot that was a BLIZZARD was an umbrella for my assistant to hold over me. My equipment was wetter than I would have liked, and since he didn’t need to hold my reflector very often (since the snow was giving me enough fill light) he could have helped keep my equipment dry.

Shooting in the winter can be intimidating, there’s more prep and more to think about when you shoot, but I think the images you can get are so unique and totally worth it. Imagine how awesome it would be to hang some of the below images in your home during the holidays.