Clothing for Cold Weather Photography

We can take a few minutes. I want to talk a little bit about staying warm and staying comfortable when you make photography trips. Couple of things are really important to know and let's just start with some of the real basics, okay? Clothing, layers. Winter is the time of the year that you really want to protect yourself from the elements. The key to it is staying dry. When I say dry, I don't mean necessarily lying in the snow and getting your butt wet. It's more that your perspiration, as you move around as it starts to dampen the inner garments that you're wearing can cause real problems for you down the road. There's an old saying in winter trekking, 'Cotton kills.' And this is where the synthetic materials really work better for you than wearing cotton because cotton not only takes in the moisture that your body perspires, it holds it there, it doesn't wick it away from you. So the synthetic materials that you can get like fleece, polar fleece, wicks the moisture off of your body and allows it to evaporate over the course of the day, keeping you dry which is really important in cold environments. So if we think about that, let's start with the different layers. So when as I'm out, I generally wear a very thin undergarment, which is a fleece layer that I wear which wicks the moisture directly off my body into the next layer. And if I'm warm, then that's all I'm wearing. But if I'm a little bit chilled, then I wear a medium layer of fleece material, which also keeps me warm, but also allows me to take it off and shut it, if I start to get perspiring and start to get wet. So it's all layering. You take stuff off, you start getting hot you take stuff off, you start getting cold, you put stuff back on. And I get to this point after this and if it starts to get chilly late in the day or the temperatures have dropped to 10, 15, below zero, I start pulling out the heavy guns and I start getting my heavier polar fleece, which then goes on top of this, which keeps me warmer as well. But the key ingredient to that is that after I get to that point the big item that keeps us cold in the winter is the wind. And so my last layer here is a very large anorak system which is big and bulky allows me to put a lot of material on underneath but keeps me very warm inside by breaking the wind. It also allows me to pull over a hood, which is another one of those great ways to retain heat with inside of your shell here in order to stay warm. And as a practice, if I'm going into the back country for any length of period of time, I also have a deep park of, and this is a down park which you can see compresses into a very, very small bag but as I pull it out and fluff this up, it's a huge down jacket. I can be outside all day long with this on, for any length of period of time, 20, 30, below zero, and I'm good to go with this kind of a garment set on side. The same is true for my pants. Now I'm wearing a windproof pair of pants, right now, that I've got fleece underwear on underneath this which keeps me toasty. And what I've got on today because it's fairly warmer today, It's a very lightweight pair, but just like my jackets, I'll carry a thick piece and I'll carry a thin piece again. So I can take off and put on as the temperatures change in order to stay warm and dry when I'm out. So there are some kinds of pants that you can get. I wanted to just show these to you because the ones that I have on right now, don't have these little panels on them. If you look at this, there's a panel for the butt, this is waterproof material, outside of the windproof material. And you'll see the same thing happens on my knees, because photographers kneel down all the time, or do sit down all the time. It allows me to do that in cold temperatures and not get up with wet knees or a wet behind. The next is gloves. And generally, if I'm active, if I'm snowshoeing or if I'm hiking, I'm out for a long time, I wear another pair of small fleece gloves, which are basically liners that I keep on my hands to keep my fingers and my palms of my hands and the back of my hands, which allows everything to operate toasty. Now there's debate where some people wouldn't want you just get fingerless gloves because, how can I work my cameras without fingerless gloves? Well, you can do that, but again, your digits will get really cold. If it's 10 degrees below zero your digits are going to get really cold. So I tend to be able to find that I can work with these, and if I can't, I take them off, I get my shot, I put them right back on again. And in that case, in my anorak, which has this big pouch, if my hands start to get cold, I have mittens. And the reason I'm showing you mittens is these are fleece lined, waterproof and exteriors; is that I can put these on in the coldest of temperatures, and within 30 seconds, my fingers have warmed up. The big difference is that if you're wearing gloves, each individual finger is sealed with insulation but it doesn't allow all of the other fingers to contribute to the heat of your hands. So wearing gloves, big pair of gloves, and you're out in extreme winter conditions, isn't going to help you. You need something like mittens, which allows all of the digits, warm each other up and becomes a nice comfortable little family inside these things. So another key ingredient for winter wear. Now when you're out in your winter time and it's really cold, I have a variety of hats. And again, this all depends on the conditions that I'm in and what I'll take with me. But my big hat is another one of these hats that comes around my neck, gets around underneath my chin, I pull my hood over. I am completely warmed in this double layered, winter fleece, heavy fleece but then the lighter ones, you know, there's lighter smaller synthetic ones that you can throw on. And then if it's really not cold outside at all, like my ears are getting nippy, you can get one of these guys on that just goes around the top of your forehead, over your ears and breaks the chill. If we agree, remember that your head is your thermostat to your body. This is where you can really regulate the temperatures. And in doing so, If I'm just out cruising around, I want to stay dry again, I can just throw on a baseball cap, it retains some of the heat. And if I get too hot, I can take it off and allows the heat to escape. You can use that as your thermostat and you're good to go. So once I've got all this stuff and I'm to getting out, I'm going to throw my stuff into a sled which I carry or I pop, which I'm going to carry with me. I can throw all of this inside of a waterproof bag. I can toss in my sled, I can be out all day long with my lunch, my dinner, my clothes. And I'm good to go. Last thing I want to show you is that when you're out, if you're not snowshoeing and you're just going to be jumping out of the car into deep snow to get a shot that you can't get from the road, then you want to make sure that you protect your feet. Protecting your feet is a great thing to keep reminded of. I have often said in order the old trick I learned growing up in Alaska is just that you can pull your pants down over your boots, and when you do so I actually tie my laces in around my pants. So I pull them tight. So if I jump into deep snow, the snow doesn't get down the backside of my boots, which is a real pain in the butt because not only does it melt, get your feet wet, but it's uncomfortable when you're moving around. So if you're not using gaiters, then this is the great way to be able to keep the snow going out from the outside of your boots to the inside of your boots. The other thing is that if you notice these are pretty big boots and these are called CRLs there's any kind of, they call them moon boots anything else, but they're felt lined. And that felt lining again wicks the moisture off of my feet, keeps me warm and you could actually replace the felt liners in the middle of the day. They weigh nothing, and you keep your feet warm. If you're wearing a pair of hiking boots in winter, first of all you're going to get snowed on the backside, no matter what, and they're not going to keep you warm because it's just leather against socks. And that's just not going to keep you warm. And so people say, well, how do you... pairs of socks do you wear in these? One pair of socks, the felt liners, I snugged these things up. My gosh, I've been out 35 below weather all day long, I've never gotten cold. So you just regulate, winter is a pain to shoot. And if you're prepared, it's a great way to shoot. And the main thing is to be comfortable when you're out. And I think more importantly that is to be safe when you're being out. So this looks like a lot of equipment but winter is a different ball game. And so be prepared. You'll have a great shoot when you go out.