As a follow up to my "Winter is Magical" post I am hoping you were encouraged to get out to enjoy winter. Perhaps you will have your camera with to document your family winter fun, or maybe you just want to capture the gorgeous scenery. Either way, here are some tips to keep you and your gear happily functioning.

You: Dress in layers. This may seem like a no brainer, but the warmer you are the more you will enjoy your outing. I like to wear small thin gloves under my mittens so when I do start taking pictures I can easily use the buttons on my camera without my fingers freezing. Mittens with the removable fingertips would work well too.

Your gear: batteries drain quickly in cold temps so keep a spare or two in an inside pocket close to your body. Also keep your camera in a pocket or camera bag between shots to keep it from getting too cold (do not put it inside your coat close to your body as this can create condensation on your camera and fog up the lens). Transfer your camera and lenses to a sealable plastic bag BEFORE going indoors and leave it like that for several hours until it has reached room temperature. This will keep any condensation from occurring inside your camera which could cause mechanical failures.

Your camera settings: your camera will want to underexpose the bright white scene and make the snow look blue instead. Try shooting in a setting other than manual and use exposure compensation (+/- symbol) to overexpose up to 2 stops. Your owners manual can help you with how to do this with your camera model. 

Hope this helps! Feel free to comment below.