If you live on the east coast, you know we’ve been hammered with snow over the past month, mainly the past 2 weeks. Lets just say, I’ve gotten my fair share of practice when it comes to photographing snow. There was a period of two days when snow literally came down non-stop. We kept the window of our living room open, just because we got a kick out of seeing a blanket of snow pouring down. Every now and then, there would be a gust of wind that would tear through, whipping snow around in tight spirals, resembling a tornado. I kept thinking in my head of how I could photograph this, attempting numerous times, i did get a few good photos, but the action always got lost in the background. First I started shooting with just ambient light, trying to capture the snow and the atmosphere, the photos just didn’t give the feeling I was hoping. Next I had turned to shooting with some flash, mainly as a fill, using the flash to supplement and freeze the action of the snowflakes falling. I think I got a few good frames out of it, but honestly, I did these by just shooting the flash through a window because I feared getting moisture into the unit. Finally, I manned up and threw a zip-loc bag on my flash unit. Triggering it with a pocket wizard, I put it on a light stand and placed it outside my front door. To make these exposures, I kept my shutter speed at 1/250th of a second (the max sync speed for my flash), keeping my aperture around f8, not sure exactly but at a descent depth of field. I wanted some depth to make sure I captured the snow. From there I adjusted the ISO until a eliminated the ambient light. By doing this, the background was a solid black, allowing the flash to make the exposure for me. Everytime the flash fired, it froze the snowflakes that were dancing around the frame. The final product, I was really happy with, but to be honest, looked a lot like the static you see on the tv. Here are a few of my favorites. Hope you enjoy, and please feel free to leave and comments and criticism, its always appreciated. Thanks.
