photographing winter frost

Introduction

photographing frost around sunrise can create beautiful imagery but it is not for the faint-hearted afraid of the cold!

pre-plan your shoot locations if possible
- do some location scouting with a backlit sunrise in mind to find the best places to set up when it does become frosty
check to see if frost is forecast
- this usually requires:
  - a clear night sky with reasonable humidity levels and no clouds or wind
  - inland away from the moderating affects of the coast to allow sub-zero temperatures
check to see if there actually is a frost:
- if you have farmer friends nearby, perhaps agree to call them when they wake up at 4am
ensure you have enough warm gear on and coffee to go:
- fingerless gloves plus full thin gloves which still allow camera operation
- 3 or 4 layers of jackets and long sleeve thermal top
- long john thermal pants under trousers and waterproof pants (consider extra protection of knees if you are going to get down low)
- perhaps 2 or 3 pairs of socks
- waterproof boots
- beanie, scarf
- torch if you are going to set up well before sunrise
ensure your sensor is clean
- if you want to get lovely sun-star effects of sunrise, this requires smaller apertures (preferably with a lens with an odd number of diaphragm blades) which will show up all your sensor dust spots in the blue sky