Photographing the snowy landscape

It's snowing, and the whole world looks new and different, covered in as yet unbroken white.

It's time to take some photographs. But snow photography is tricky, and you can be disappointed in the results unless you are smart.

First of all, take care with your white balance or the snow can come out blue!

Secondly, if you're taking a snow photo on an overcast day, remember that when your light meter sees the snow, it will think 'Wow! That's bright!' It will underexpose and the photo will look grey and dingy. So if it's overcast, set the camera's exposure to +1 or +2.

A practical tip; protect your camera from the cold - batteries will fail quickly if they get too cold.

Now for the more creative stuff.

• look for footprints, melting patterns, and ice patterns. I've just taken some photos of bubbles in an ice puddle. I'm also going to try a time lapse of how footprints gradually clear the sidewalk of snow on a city street - that could be interesting.
  
• consider the light - shining through ice, or catching the snow on the trees.
• Capture snowfall with a slow speed so you can see the flakes drifting. Or if you want to fix the movement of the flakes, use flash to do it.
• Use light to capture the forms and textures of the snow - to see the landscape under the white blanket. Low light, at sunrise or sunset, is particularly good in casting shadows across the landscape to bring its shape alive, otherwise your photos will look flat and two-dimensional.
• Look for colour contrasts - two walkers in their bright scarves and hats on top of a snowy hill, or the green shoots of young plants poking through the snow.
  

And my final tip for snow photography; have a nice pot of soup ready for you when you get home, or a thermos of coffee in the car. You'll need it!