Winter Photography Tips

What's interesting about planning this trip is just how helpful friends are (and not to mention how excited they are with our 'little' adventure)... Friends has been contributing traveling tips, whether it be the cheapest way to get around Europe (thanks to Jamie for the Eurail passes), places to eat or shop... heck, even my boss joined in the 'fun' by looking for cheap (but awesome, nonetheless) accommodations in Prague.

With so many things to cover before we go to Europe, having people point us in the right direction (so to speak) really saves us a lot of time.

This evening I had a pretty interesting conversation with my photog friend about taking photos during winter. Being in a tropical country, I never would had thought how much the weather would affect my camera.

Batteries Drain Faster in Cold Weather

My camera uses 4 units of AA batteries. To make sure that my camera doesn't run out of power when I'm out taking pics, I will be carrying another set of AA batteries with me as back up. And yes, they are rechargeable :) So the tip here is to bring extra sets of rechargeable batteries :)

Condensation is the Camera's Worst Enemy

Unfortunately, this was something that happened to my photog friend. He had packed his equipment in the hotel room (which was nice and warm). He was doing an outdoor photoshoot. And the moment he took his camera out from the bag, he could see that his camera lenses fogging up. His biggest concern was the possibility of condensation inside the camera.

So to avoid this problem, he gave me this tip: Place the camera first inside a plastic bag containing air the same temperature as the camera. This is so that when you take the camera out into an extremely cold environment, the condensation forms on the plastic bag instead of on the camera. By doing so, you are also giving the camera some time to get use to the cold climate.

Of course there is this other issue when taking photos in winter, such as frostbite. So remember to keep warm at all times and if you need to remove your gloves when taking photos, remember to not expose your skin for long periods of time... unless of course if you don't care much for your fingers ;)