Last week, one of our ProProgram students who shoots in the Arctic with PolarHorizons.com asked for a custom photo course to cover Winter Landscapes. Shooting in the winter & in the cold has its challenges – and photography is only one of them.

We had beautiful weather. It was quite cool at -15C.

Winter photo landscape course © France Rivet

For France’s photo workshop we first met in Ottawa at our studio to cover the ideas of staying warm in winter’s cold as well as shooting ideas for the wilderness.

There’s no need to be cold when shooting in the winter! With the right knowledge and preparation you can be warm and capture some stunning work at sub zero temperatures.

We took France to some secret spots in Gatineau Park including a location with abandoned vehicles surrounded by acres of wilderness!

Winter Landscape Photo Workshop © France Rivet

France did well. We were in the cold for 6 hours – far enough from any shelter to make it a true wilderness shooting expedition.

She said:

“The preparatory discussion on the Sunday was very beneficial as it gave me an excellent idea of what I was to bring.

The chosen location was perfect.

I appreciated the fact that you provided suggestions when you saw something of interest which had gone totally unnoticed by me (e.g. getting the star bursts behind the evergreens).”

Nice work, France!