Photography News issue 27

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

20 Camera Club of the Year IN ASSOCIATIONWITH

Masterclass: Brr, it’s cold David Noton Landscape photographer and Canon ambassador David Noton is dishing out advice from his vast pool of experience to help you and your club take home the top prize. This month, we’re wrapping up warm for our second masterclass

David’s kit for cold shoots

Spare batteries I’m shooting with the Canon EOS 5DS R and

Canon EF 24-70MMLENS The lens that’s my most used is the 24-70mm lens, it’s a workhorse of a lens, just useful for all situations. always suffers. I would always carry a spare set of batteries, but in the winter I would really need to pay special attention to that and sometime carry two sets of spares. we all know about battery capability in the cold – it

Warmclothes Dress appropriately for the weather, there’s a real art to dressing for the cold. There’s a science behind it and it makes all the difference. Images Whether you’re shooting your cold weather pictures in Bognor Regis or from under a glacier in Iceland, preparation is really imporrtant. This doesn’t just mean dressing right but also having your camera kit sorted. It also pays to allow time for your kit to acclimatise when moving from the warm to the freezing cold. A practical and inspirational guide from behind the lens of an internationally recognised landscape and travel photographer, Photography in the Raw examines the fundamentals of how to improve as a photographer; how to read the light, be in the right place at the right time and make the most of a situation to produce the best picture possible. Photography in the Rawby David Noton

Warmsummerdays, breezyautumn afternoons and cold winter nights, landscape photographers have got to be on top of their game to tackle any condition. Sometimes the most rewarding shot takes a little longer and a lot more effort to achieve, and that’s not unusual when shooting out in the cold. David Noton has been in the landscape business for decades and he can quickly reel off a list of locations where he’s braved the cold and been rewarded handsomely with a frame-worthy shot, from the mountains in Italy to the chilly terrains of Iceland to the windswept hill-scapes of Cumbria. Growing up in Canada, David’s no stranger toadverseweather and it seems obvious, but should never be overlooked, that wrapping up warm is one of the most critical elements to a successful cold-weather shoot. “The first thing is that you’ve got to be comfortable,” he advises, speaking from experience. “There’s

no good being out in the landscape shivering your nuts off, you’re not going to get the job done if you aren’t comfortable.” There is a gap in the market for one particular item of clothing. “The one thing that no one has come up with a perfect solution for is fingers.” Small camera buttons and touchscreens can be impossible to operate, and this is where coming prepared can really pay off. Instead of changing lenses innear impossible conditions, it’s a good idea to start your outdoor shoot by fixing a lens that you know you’ll be able to get a few decent pics from. For David, every time it’s the Canon 24-70mm lens that you’ll find fitted to his Canon EOS 5DS R. “It’s that mid-range, it goes from wide-angle to medium telephoto and it’s such a versatile, workhorse of a lens.” There’s something else to watch out for when it comes to lenses, Davidwarns; that’s extreme changes in temperature. Moisture collected

There’s no good being out in the landscape shivering your nuts off, you’re not going to get the job done

froma warm environment can settle on elements of the lens, then when it’s taken out into the cold can freeze. The same is true of the reverse too, you’ll have misted lenses. “The thing to do is try and avoid really extreme changes of temperature,” he advises. “Give the camera time to cool down or warm up.” One of his most recently captured, prized images taken in the cold was taken on a trip to an ice cave underneath a glacier in Iceland. “Everything is blue with the translucent light coming through the ice,” he describes. “There are

different shades of blue in the shot, apart fromone element which is just a tiny figure of a person, who is my wife, Wendy, stood with a purple jacket on. You’ve got that quite interesting colour clash; one tiny dash of purple amongst the blue.” David says that despite the setbacks, shooting in the cold can be enormously rewarding. “I’m no stranger to working in very cold conditions, and visually, frost and snow can really make an innocuous scene look absolutely beautiful.”

davidnoton.com