Photographing in Winter
Tips and Inspiration
If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably already know that winter is my favorite season. This is true in my everyday life, and in photography. I love the way winter looks, feels, and even smells. I love the chill air and the stark beauty. I love the effects that cold air has on weather, the landscape, and human beings.
I feel very lucky to live in a part of the world that experiences winter. Not only do we get to experience cold and snow, we get it in a coastal environment, which is even more rare.
Why is photographing winter so special? For many reasons.
The first reason is the pure aesthetic beauty of the season. White snow covers and simplifies otherwise distracting or overwhelming details. The bright white tones makes objects that aren’t covered in snow stand out in great contrast. The monochromatic nature of winter brings a harmonious color scheme to many scenes. Finally, the weather patterns favor more dramatic skies, more storms, and at the opposite end, more extremely dry, clear air.
Below I’m going to break down some tips and practical considerations that will help you see how I photograph the winter landscape, and hopefully inspire you to enjoy it yourself.
One of the best things about photographing in winter that I haven’t already mentioned is the fact that photography is an excuse for simply getting out. So many people stay indoors in the winter and complain about the cold and snow and how inconvenient they are. We are not those people.
Get out there! Experience the majesty of winter! Feel the cold air on your back and warm sun on your face. You’ll be very glad you did.
Why Winter
There are so many unique aspects of winter that I can’t possibly cover them all, but here are a few things I’ve noticed that makes the season special.
Simplification
This image of Portland Head Light simply wouldn’t have been possible without snow. It obscured what would have otherwise been distracting lines and colors in the foreground and accentuated the sweeping curve of the rock escarpment framing the lighthouse. Snow in the air caught the beam of light and a fast shutter speed locked it in place.
The Swinging Bridge connecting Brunswick and Topsham is usually a tricky subject to photograph. In this image, snow covered the trees in the background to such an extent that they render mostly white, and the structure of the bridge stands out much more prominently. Also, the lack of color in the surrounding landscape really makes the red pop.
Drama
To get this perspective, I wedged my camera into a small crevice between two large ice blocks that were pushed up by the tide. Melting ice created some fantastic icicles, and waiting until sunset created the beautiful light and warm/cool color contrast.
It’s not so much the snow, but the extreme cold that creates the atmosphere that infuses this image of Cook’s Lobster House, taken during a nor’easter. Strong winds whip through the scene, especially evident in the straining flag and whitecaps on the water. The tense atmosphere is electric. I can honestly say that it hurt to stand outside!
It doesn’t get much more dramatic than this. Mornings when the temperature dips into the single digits and below zero create the conditions necessary for the formation of sea smoke, one of the coolest phenomena you’ll ever see. Sadly, we won’t be seeing these little shacks on Willard Beach any more.
Beauty
Urban environments can look great in winter, too. I loved this scene, taken on the campus of Bowdoin College, as a student walks down a path lined with colossal trees pasted in beautiful white snow.
A gentle s-curve in Strawberry Creek, right next to the Harpswell Town Offices, was created by rising and falling tides. That crazy bluish green color is one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen, and really drives visual engagement with this image.
Standing on the top of Middle Sister Mountain, looking out at further ridges and Mount Chocorua, surrounded by this stand of snow-covered trees at sunset, is undeniably beautiful. I can’t think of a more perfect representation of what makes being out in nature in the winter more special than this.
Small Scenes in Winter
It’s not just the grand landscape that benefits from the effects of cold and snow. Small scenes beg to be captured in winter, too.
Things as simple as frozen puddles can look like abstract paintings. I love capturing these with my cell phone camera while out on walks. I should probably use my real camera more often on these incredible finds.
Another winter find, this one seen while out cross-country skiing behind my house, were these winter berries covered in snow. Sunlight shining on them helped separate them from the cool, blue background.
A zoom lens allowed me to get in close on the details of these ice crystals, known as hoar frost, on some small plants in Acadia National Park during our winter workshop there last year.
These fantastical sculptures were found dangling from a tree branch over some rapids in a nearby stream. The splashing water created these formations as it froze. Looking at them now, I’m suddenly reminded of the mothers in my life. :-)
Ice patterns abound in the depth of winter, and I love photographing them when I see them. You can find these everywhere!
Winter Storms
Photographing around winter storms can be especially productive. There are opportunities to capture not only great light before and after the storm, but also unique moments during storms.
Before the Storm
I like to go out on mornings when a storm is coming in for the chance to capture beautiful sunrises. This can happen when you have incoming clouds overhead with a window of clear skies to the east.
Conditions like these are incredibly rare, but do happen. A previous storm at Portland Head Light coated the shrubs in the foreground in frozen sea spray. Two days later, a colossal sunrise filled the sky with these incredible colors and illuminated the ice.
During the Storm
Winter storms can be devastating, and that has sadly been true more than once in the past few years. This colossal wave did major damage to Portland Head Light in December 2022.
Storms without much wind can convey a much more peaceful mood, as heavy snow fills the air and creates amazing atmosphere, such as in this scene from Owls Head Harbor.
The heavy snow makes this scene sparkle with beauty and energy. I love the quiet stillness that abounds in this kind of snowstorm.
The monochromatic nature of winter is especially evident during a snowstorm. This was taken at Doubling Point Lighthouse.
After the Storm
The remnants of winter storms can be just as beautiful as what is seen before and during.
I loved this drift formation on the rocks beneath Nubble Lighthouse. A compressed perspective with a long lens brought these two subjects together and makes it appear as though the Nubble is perched on top of this snowdrift.
The cleanup after a big storm is fascinating from a human cultural perspective, especially well illustrated in this scene from downtown Brunswick, where the width of Maine Street allows the snow plows to create this giant embankment in the middle of the road after heavy snows.
The peace and beauty of freshly fallen snow is evident in this twilight capture from Mount Battie in Camden.
Sea Smoke
I don’t think we can get through this post without a complete surrender to the awe and wonder of sea smoke.
The thing to know about when and where to find sea smoke is that it requires a great difference in temperature between the air and water. It’s caused by the same dynamic that creates steam over lakes, rivers, and streams on cool mornings in the fall. Of course, by winter most of these inland bodies of water are frozen. Because ocean waters are colder than inland bodies of water in the fall, it requires much colder temperatures to get the differential needed. By winter, we finally start to get into this range.
Generally speaking, mornings in November in the teens or single digits, December in the single digits or below zero, and January and February below zero, are when you’ll find sea smoke. The colder, the better. Warmer pockets of water, such as near the outlets of rivers and streams and in shallow waters that have been warmed by the sun, produce more steam than deep, colder waters. Also, higher humidity, which doesn’t often coincide with cold, can help produce more condensation. It’s fun to puzzle out, but don’t stress the details too much. Just think cold!
The temperature was -15F when I captured this. It’s a little later in the morning than most of my sea smoke photos, and the light is therefore less dramatic. I still love it, though.
It’s not just the sea smoke, but the incredible light and color that make this image from my favorite sea smoke location, Five Islands, interesting. That’s because I photographed this just as the sun crested the horizon, thereby capturing its warm-hued backlight.
One of my most iconic sea smoke images was created at Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse in South Portland in 2015. This created a little bit of a craze at this location the next time it was cold enough for more. It felt great to inspire so many people to get out and witness this themselves!
Again, I can’t express how lucky I feel to live in Maine. Seeing these amazing subjects, lighthouses and lobster boats, in full winter conditions, is this photographer’s dream come true. This really tells the story of our unique culture.
Winter Nights
The nights are long in winter, and instead of huddling indoors, I like to get outside at night and capture the beauty of the night skies and amazing winter constellations.
This was taken two years ago at Chimney Pond on Katahdin, surrounded by the most dramatic mountain scenery in New England. I noticed that the constellation Orion was coming over Baxter Peak, and waiting until the right foot was no longer obscured to make this image. That’s me standing there with my headlamp. I used a self-timer on the camera and ran down to get in the photo.
The Mount Washington summit sign is a well-known landmark in New England, thanks to the auto road that brings tourists up here in the warmer months. Seeing it the winter, however, requires a bit more effort and luck. The mountain is known for having the world’s worst weather, and no time is that more true than in winter. We were lucky to have a small window, and summited unplanned after being drawn up here after a sunset shoot on nearby Mount Monroe. I propped my camera on my camera bag and used a headlamp to illuminate the sign, and noticed that the Big Dipper was hanging perfectly above.
Late winter is the beginning of what’s known as Milky Way Season among serious night photographers. That’s because the core of our home galaxy becomes visible once again after disappearing for a few months below the horizon around the winter solstice. The only time to see this is early in the morning, the wee hours between 2 and 5 AM. I lose a little motivation to get up at these ungodly hours every year, but I have never regretted doing so. The capture above was taken at Reid State Park in Georgetown. Again, a self-timer allowed me to get into the photo myself and pose. The silhouettes of our iconic coastal conifers help make this image extra special. The look huge because of the perspective of an ultra-wide, 14mm, lens.
Red on White
I’m not the first person to notice: red subjects look absolutely awesome in the snow. I don’t think there’s much more to be said on this.
Winter Without Cold and Snow
We all know that winter isn’t always cold and snowy. That seems to be the case more and more in the past decade, as the climate changes and winter gets shorter, and sometimes weirder. It isn’t just the cold and snow that make winter special, although the presence of previous cold still has it’s effect on these scenes.
Bare trees make great subjects, and don’t require snow to look interesting. Some dramatic light, certainly evident in this case, can help!
I loved the foreboding mood in this scene, taken in winter in Harpswell. Another thing that we see a lot of in winter is fog, especially when we have warm spells like this.
The quality of light in winter is special all its own, as seen in this image from Marshall Point Lighthouse. The low angle and clarity of light, even on the horizon, is unique to the season.
Winter cleared the streets in what is otherwise an incredibly busy area in Portland and made this puddle capture possible after some winter rain.
Publication News
I’m excited to share that there is an article in the current Yankee Magazine, a periodical covering all of New England, featuring the work of students in our Winter in Acadia photography workshop, co-led with JK Putnam. I’m so glad they chose student work to highlight this article, as it really shows the amazing creativity of our students and I think empowers other photographers to get out there and photograph themselves in winter. Click on this LINK to read it on pages 72-79.
There will also be an article Down East Magazine featuring my winter exploits on Katahdin, released soon. I’ll share that when it comes out.
It’s an honor to share in the love of the season that means so much to me. As always, thanks for looking.
Fantastic!
Fabulous! Thank you for sharing with us!