SNOW this weekend...help!

[poker]

Hi All,

We are going to Big Bear this weekend and I haven't seen snow in years. I want to shoot a lot of pictures but I don't know what to expect.

Unfortunately my ignorance is broad. I'd like to hike and take pictures of course.

Should I take my tripod and 70-200 or am I asking for trouble since it's too heavy and I'll slip and fall on the snow?

Should I use an ND filter to control the white bright snow, is my polarizer good enough, or maybe I don't need it at all?

I'll appreciate any advice on shooting or hiking in those conditions and anything about Big Bear.

THANKS!

I would've put this in the Travel Forum if PR had one

[Loupey]

In my part of the country, Big Bear is a grocery store so, no, you don't need any of those things

I'd lose the tripod. Unless you have some ND and CP's already, I wouldn't pack those either. Stay light for safety reasons.

Even at mid-day, the sun is low enough that you should still get nice detail in the snow without blowing out. Plus, all that reflected light will allow you to bump up your shutter speed to keep you from needing your tripod.

I just posted some sample snow/winter shots in the Nature and Wildlife forum. All shots there are at mid-day (between 10am and 2pm) and without any filters. Exposures are crazy (like 1/350s at f/11 at ISO 100).

Hope that helps some.

[Ronnoco]

Living in Canada, I shoot in the snow a lot and in the cold. If you shoot in auto, the snow will be a light grey colour and anyone in the snow will look underexposed. The meter adjusts for the bright snow.

Exposure is tricky. The snow has to look white, which means slight overexposure, but at the same time, no white out...as in texture detail should be present. If you are shooting people in the snow, watch your angle so that you can use the snow as a reflector rather than shooting towards a bright area and getting a silhouette.

Colour temperature in snow shots can also end up very much in the cool blue range which is not always what you want. You might want to use your camera menu to warm up your shots a little.

A polarizer would be helpful to minimize the reflected glare off the snow and to darken the sky a little as well.

Any camera should be able to handle the cold. I have shot down to 40 below without a problem.

Good luck!

Ronnoco

[poker]

Thanks for all the valuable information! I hope to come back with something interesting.