Winter Weather Photography Gear and Clothing Tips

This week join me and professional wildlife photographer, Jared Lloyd, as we photograph one of the harshest winter environments on earth, Yellowstone National Park. Now, this park offers great wildlife photography opportunities year round, but it's winter that is truly the most spectacular time of year to photograph this wildlife. I'm your host, Doug Gardner, and your wild photo adventure starts now. You know, one of the great things about working in places like Yellowstone National Park in the winter time is that you get to experience how the animals survive in this brutal environment and the lifestyle that they have to live in order to survive this. But, the more important thing is in order for you to get to here and enjoy it, you got to be able to survive too. So, we're going to go over a few little things that they'll make you more comfortable and possibly save your life. You know, we want to start out with, with head gear, you know, head gear is where you lose the vast majority of your body heat. And, you know, Jared, you've got the traditional type of twill type- Toboggan, beanie, whatever you want to call it. The inside of it actually has polar fleece wrapped around inside of it for extra warmth. Very crucial for these sort of days. Yeah, in, like this morning, we were in -37 degrees, very cold. We were at a higher altitude, little bit of wind, and that just didn't cut the mustard. So, in those kind of conditions you want to use a balaclava, which comes up over your nose and mouth, protects this whole area, and kind of blocks out all that wind. It simply tucks in around your jacket and comes up over your nose and mouth like this. Traps in a lot of that heat. You move on down to the jackets. And I guess we should actually start with layering. You know, that's the most important thing in climates like this is, is to layer your clothing. Not only does that allow you to shed layers if you're active, if you're doing hiking, you know, in deep snow and that kind of thing, you're going to build up a sweat. Sweat is what'll get you every time. Sweat is the killer, cause that sweat will pull body heat away from your body. So, being able to shed layers as you need is, is crucial. But, I have, actually, three layers on. I started with a Smartwool thermal underwear, and then on top of that, I have a polar fleece lined pant, and then on, on the outside, my jacket and my pants are, it's a waterproof shell. Yeah. I live up here in these sort of conditions, So I'm a little bit more acclimated to that. Plus I'm kind of a, a bigger guy if you haven't noticed that yet or not. And so I have a little bit less layering on than Doug does here. For me. I've got a t-shirt on, but remember, not cotton. Cotton kills. That's the saying that you want to keep in your mind. But I've got a, basically a t-shirt on, then I've got a flannel on over that, and then just this jacket here. And, you know, notice, that both Doug and I are wearing camouflage right now. We're in Yellowstone National Park. If we wanted to be camouflaged we'd be wearing all white right now. This is doing absolutely nothing for us in terms of disguising us from these animals. All it is is that these types of jackets, first and foremost, are meant to be waterproof. This is a duck hunting jacket right here. And they're also designed for people that are sitting outdoors, without moving, for hours on end. And so, it gives you lots of layer, or lots of room to layer and lots of fluff for that warm air to kind of build up around your body. And they're extremely warm. Now, whereas Doug has, kind of, a more traditional hunting pants on, what I opt for are actually snowmobile pants. So, in addition to having waterproof boots and waterproof pants, I also like to use gaiters. And they simply just wrap around the bottom part of your pants here. And the strap goes under the boot and a little, a little hook ties into your laces. And this keeps snow from coming up your pants leg and then back down into your boot, which, essentially will create wet feet. So the next thing we need to talk about are boots. Boots are absolutely crucial when you're working in this sort of environment. My boots that I'm wearing are rated for -65. Doug's on the other hand are -45. Now, you might think to yourself, well, it only got down to -37 today, so is -65 a little bit of an overkill. It's actually not. In fact, my feet did get a little bit cold today, even with -60. And, you have to understand, the way that the ratings on boots work is that they're rated for activity. So if you're hiking, you're walking, you're working, then they're rated for that sort of temperature because your feet are producing heat. And what Doug and I have both found over the years in working in these sort of environments, is that anywhere between 60 and 45 tend to be just about right for us. For what we can personally stand. Exactly. Yeah. You mean you got to be able to hike with them. You gotta be able to climb in and out of vehicles. You got to clamor over rocks, and you know, you don't want to wear yourself out. And when you're wearing boots that are weight, that weigh 10 pounds each, which some do, you know, you're going to significantly cut down on what you're actually able to do during the day out here. If you've chosen the right boot, you should be able to get away with a thin, a thin pair of socks, whether it's polypropylene or or another similar product that wicks moisture away from your foot. And then, a heavier sock, like a Smartwool sock or something like that. On top of it, you should have enough airspace around your foot that you can trap the heat. The same thing with layers. You want to be- the name of the game is trapping body heat between layers. If you get them too tight, you're kind of defeating the purpose. That's right. You're going to be working in snow and you're going to be loosening the tripod legs and your tripods are constantly going to be in the snow. So, your hands are going to get wet if you don't have some waterproof gloves. The little trick that I learned a long time ago with these type of gloves is that you can actually slip a set of hand warmers down inside of the glove. So I have just, you know, the typical hand warmers that you shake to warm up sitting at the top of my hands in both of these gloves. And I can just feel that heat radiating out right to my fingertips. And so in the coldest of weather, I can still use these and I can still feel my camera, I can work all the controls. Larger gloves that are actually designed for this sort of temperature, you can't feel your camera, your camera controls whatsoever. And they're basically useless on you. Earlier in the week, I was doing some things and I could not actually use my gloves. And I've got severe frostbite and huge cuts, open wounds, on my knuckles, from just my hands being exposed just for a matter of minutes here. This is serious business, guys. I mean, you can really, you can get yourself in a world of hurt real quick if you don't prepare appropriately. Eyewear! If you spend several days in this sort of environment with that snow reflecting light back into your eyes you can cause snow blindness, which will basically just shut down your trip. Right. Absolutely. I tell you, I think we're prepared. We've got snow. We got cold weather and animals on the move. I think we're ready to do it. Let's get out of here.