Friday, February 28, 2014

Winter pictures from the inside out!

Ok, so it's confession time...
           I love snow.
                    There I've said it.
                                But I hate the cold. (huh?)

When it comes down to it I would love to be outside photographing winter if it was say, at least 40 or more degrees out. Like so many others I know, we are all pretty tired of the never ending winter. It seems to be longer every year.

But I'm facing the never ending desire to be creative even when I feel my DNA wanting to continue to hibernate...
               ...but I don't feel like bundling up and trying to fit my camera under my coat to keep it warm (it's only about 10 degrees today which means I'd only get about 10 minutes before the camera died if I didn't keep it warm).

So I decided to just have a little fun and be warm while I photographed winter. I love the form of the drifting snow and the sparkles of sunshine that catch my attention and ice. So call me lazy but I got some cool shots of winter from my dining room window! Anyone can do this and have some creative fun in the comfort of your warm house.

At this temp, who doesn't have some ice on their windows someplace in the house? Maybe even steam from the morning showers leave some ice on the bathroom window. In my case the bright sun has made some frost and crystals between the double panes of glass. Looking closely at the ice, it's really cool and there are so many different looks to it when you view them with different things outside as a background. Shadows, the blue sky, etc. all give the crystals different looks. 

Take a look. I took these photos with my Canon PowerShot SXS510 camera that I keep in my purse. Just to prove that any camera can do this.  I tweaked them a little bit with contrast and exposure. That can be done in any basic photo editing software. I even did a couple photos with an incandescent light balance setting, pretty cool look I think!  So it may be cold out but there's so much you can do for winter photos without getting cold. Next, I think I'll just pop quickly outside on my front door and see what I can find from there (as usual, without a coat or shoes). 

Tips: try your camera in manual or one of the other NON-Program modes. Change the exposure settings because the camera's meter wants to make the snow a middle gray. Try different light balance settings. Just play with the menu and try different things!


Most of all have fun with it!
 snow drift
 ice crystals with a shadow behind for contrast
 snow as the background for a higher key look.
Frost with a shadow behind


landscape with a midnight look to it. Taken with incandescent white balance setting.


No comments: