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Photographing Outdoors in Winter Cold

Professional outdoor photographers Mark Gardner and Art Wolfe offer tips for protecting yourself and your gear in extreme winter temperatures:

Protect yourself-- avoid touching cold metal equipment with bare skin.
· Always wear liner gloves while shooting.
· Be careful not to touch the back of your camera with your cheek while shooting; either wear a face mask or insulate the back of the camera with heavy tape or thin foam.
· Wrap your tripod’s legs with pipe insulation or a commercially available leg wrap.

Keep battery capacity from diminishing in cold temperatures.
· Keep extra batteries warm inside your jacket.
· Once the batteries in your camera get too cold, swap them with the warm set.
· Consider using an external battery pack, which can be kept warm inside your jacket.

Prevent condensation from forming on your camera..
· While shooting, turn your head to direct your exhalation away from the camera.
· If there is precipitation or extreme cold, keep your camera under your first layer or two of clothing, which should offer enough protection without allowing the camera to warm up too much or too quickly.
· Before you go back indoors, put your camera inside a sealable plastic bag, squeeze all the air out, and seal the bag. If you do not have a bag, wrap the camera in your jacket. This will allow the camera to warm up slowly and will keep condensation off the camera itself.
· If you do get condensation, wait until the camera’s temperature has restabilized, then gently wipe it off.

- Adapted from Photography Outdoors: A Field Guide for Travel & Adventure, 2nd Edition by Mark Gardner and Art Wolfe (The Mountaineers Books, $14.95 paperback)

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