Shooting In The Snow with Barbara Palacios.

I recently got to go up to Southern California’s Mountain High Ski Resort to shoot for Luxury Standard Magazine. This was both fun and challenging to say the least. Snow is not ever going to be an easy element to shoot in. After all; you’re talking about a huge reflective potentially blinding surface area. 

Your camera is going to want to turn all of that white ground cover, into gray if you don’t expose properly.

And then there is the annoying and potentially gear killing frigid temperatures.Those are a separate issue in of themselves in more than one way. I started as always by putting together the right team of people to work with.

Fortunately for me JTouch was available to do hair and make up. Michelle was available to style the shoot with the furs and jewelry which I was very thankful for.Finding the model was a way tougher proposition than it should have ever been.

We tried on Facebook and it was a Facebook friend who posted that I was looking for models and she got tons of responses.

Barbara Palacios from Ecuador was the person who responded and was available.I had already booked Miss Brazil Supranational Cloris Junges who I’d worked with twice before to shoot. With all of that settled just 12 hours before we were supposed to be on the mountain I set about gathering the gear.

Two strobes. 72″ Octabox/Beauty Dish, 28″ Beauty dish, like 6 reflectors and everything else I could think of needing for a day in the snow.

Shoot Day:

JTouch showed up at the studio the morning of the shoot and we headed out to pick Michelle who lives down the street from me up and off we were for the hour and a half drive to Mountain High Ski Resort.

That’s when disaster struck. No it wasn’t anything like dangerous. Cloris reached out and stated that she wasn’t going to be able to make the shoot as her transportation fell through.Oh boy… What was I to do?

Well at least we had Barbara meeting us up on the mountain. Incidentally there is no mountain driving to get to Mountain High.

Upon our arrival we were greeted by the guest services and marketing manager and set up in a toasty office they’d cleaned out for our use, and once Barbara arrived; Jtouch went to work on her.

My cousin showed up and as normally happens with me; I dragged him into the shoot to help out.First mission; get lunch for the team. Unbeknown to us; that would take almost 2 hours.

So we already started much later than we’d hoped. After devouring the Pizzas we brought back with us we headed up to the mountain we’d be shooting on. Once we got the model in place I decided to use my 70″ Octabox beauty dish to light the model and the area.

The Shooting:

When shooting in snow, you’ve got to keep in mind that your camera is going to be looking to turn everything into gray tones.

I’m probably incorrect but I want to say it’s looking for like 19% gray. What this means for you is that if you don’t expose properly you will find that the snow instead of white will appear gray in your shots. Be mindful of that.

To overcome that you have to over expose slightly to capture the snow. But when you have a model that you’re exposing for the game changes just a bit and there is a need to make sure that your strobe matches your ambient light.Yes a light meter is going to be absolutely useful to you. 

Also; remember to dress warmly; in particularly your footwear; and stay hydrated. Those are two critical elements. You lose a lot of moisture in the snow and cold weather.

One of the biggest challenges we faced while shooting was the fact that the air was much thinner where we were. After all; this is Southern California and we actually have to go to the mountains for snow.

To kick things off I found a great area which had beautiful snow cover as well as an amazing view.

The sun was falling quickly so I had to shoot fast. I am very happy with what we ended up getting.  And I have a good team to thank for making this shoot a success.

Oh as an additional thing to think about in case I forgot to mention it earlier. When you spend a day out in the snow be careful about bringing your gear inside a heated place right away and taking it out of it’s case.

It’s best to leave it outside in your car or in a room that is not heated to allow it time to acclimate to the room temperature. Bringing your camera inside a warm environment too soon will have the same affect as pulling a bottle of beer out of the fridge and setting it on the table outside during the summer.

In short; it can seriously ruin your camera and even your lenses.

The Good Team to Thank
Hair & Make Up – JTouch
Assistant – Ed Rivera
Stylist – Michelle DeGuzman
Location – Mountain High Ski Resort