Nature Photography How To

The first day of winter is still three weeks away, but it’s time to stop thinking about autumn colors and prepare to capture the splendor of the coming frosty season. In the video below, you’ll pick up seven simple tips for making the most of the rapidly approaching winter wonderland.

Romanian pro Toma Bonciu is one of our favorite landscape instructors, and he knows what it takes to capture the essence of winter. He’s also spent plenty of time in the mountains where the landscape is often covered in snow.

In this 13-minute episode Bonciu shares his advice for making the transition from colorful autumn scenes to the barren landscapes of winter. He uses his beautiful imagery to illustrate several effective techniques.

Bonciu’s first tip is for those lucky enough to visit the mountains in winter, when the snowy landscape is often shrouded in low-lying mist. As he explains, using fog as negative space is a great way to create a sense of mystery and accentuate interesting foreground objects or peaks rising above the mist.

Unlike in autumn, when his goal is to capture compelling skies and include a variety of vibrant elements in the frame, Bonciu’s approach to composing winter scenes is to “keep it simple.” He demonstrates how winter offers the possibility of stark-yet-dramatic minimalist compositions.

Bonciu’s other tips include using warm light peeking through the clouds to emphasize a key subject against a cooler background, how to capture the texture of snow, a technique for photographing foggy sunrises, and much more. You can use Bonciu’s methods to create beautiful winter photographs wherever you live.

After watching the video, head over to Bonciu’s YouTube channel for more helpful tips. And check out an eye-opening tutorial we posted from another acclaimed outdoor photographer, explaining how to change your landscape photography forever.