An overview of one of my favorite engagement sessions to date. Read to the bottom for tips on tackling your own snowy photo session!
When Mike and I first met with Kelly and Grant about their summer 2019 wedding, one of the first things they told us was that they would love to have a snowy engagement session to contrast with their summer wedding photos. Anyone from Colorado knows this is extremely difficult to plan for unless you’re doing the session up in the mountains. Snow on the Front Range melts the next day!
We decided to just pick a date and work with a location they love: a gorgeous park with red rock formations.
This may be the luckiest session date I’ve had: it ended up being one of the snowiest days of the season so far! Getting to them was slightly terrifying because of the bad road conditions, but the special portraits we created were worth it!
Their wonderful dog Bella was such a trooper! Didn’t complain once about the cold!
I love incorporating dogs into portrait sessions!
I got to play around with my MagMod color gels, they are so fun in the snow!
If you’re looking to venture out into the snow for your own creative photo shoot, there are a couple of essentials you’ll need to be successful and comfortable.
Snow boots, snowpants, and a good coat are essential. Any photographer doing their job well should be on the ground at some point during a session to get different angles. You’ll be miserable if you have a long shoot in the snow without waterproof snow pants. Make sure you’ve got gloves too! You won’t be able to operate your gear with frozen fingers!
If the snow is really coming down you’ll want to make sure you have a waterproof camera bag, or at least a waterproof cover. In between shots I usually just stick my camera in the front of my jacket to keep it dry, my snowboarding coat has a waist gaiter that also prevents my camera from falling out the bottom of my coat.
Freezing cold temperatures sap the juice out of batteries extra fast, so you’ll need more backups than usual.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, just a few things I found essential during an hour-long session like Kelly and Grant’s!
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