Cody Hatch Photography » winter

Mount Timpanogos in Winter – Utah

Cody — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 20:02:58 +0000

Mount Timpanogos in Utah is one of my favorite mountains. It is surrounded by beautiful country and is accessible. I wanted to shoot it during the winter and had some time on a January day a few years ago. It was brutally cold and there had been a fresh snowfall but the crisp air was great for photography. I had to drive several miles through a foot and a half of snow before I got to a suitable location. Once there, I setup my tripod and enjoyed the freezing vigil until the sun arose, which is when the action began.

As a note, it was so cold that my breath froze to the camera’s LCD while I looked through the camera’s viewfinder.

Canon Digital Rebel, 70mm, 1/6 second, f/11, ISO 100, polarizing filter

I also love the light along the ridge and snow drifts within the shot. Here is a closeup from the above photo:

Closeup from the photo above

REI Acme Pants

Cody — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:44:45 +0000

Throughout the winter I have been using a pair of Acme Pants from REI and just wanted to leave a note that I have really enjoyed using them. The price is higher than I typically pay for pants but I really wanted a good set of soft shell pants to wear while skiing and hiking. I took a chance with these pants and, since I bought them at REI, figured I could always return them if they didn’t live up to the billing. Well, I’ve been very impressed with the pants and consider them to be well worth the money. I’ve used them for skiing, camping (snow caving) and hiking. The pants have held up very well and have been very comfortable under all conditions. The pants are a little thin for winter pants but with a thermal layer underneath them they have been warm in even 5 degree weather.

If you’re looking for a nice pair of three season soft shell pants (spring, fall, winter), I highly recommend you head to the nearest REI and try them out.

Wasatch Mountain Winter

Cody — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:52:12 +0000

I had been dying to get out and take some photographs but the weather lately has been awful. There’s been little new snowfall, smog in the lower valleys, and the skies have alternated between gray or cloudless blue. Today, however, that all changed with a bunch of new snow overnight and throughout the morning. As the storm front moved through the sun popped out, causing all that new snow to sparkle, and, luck of all luck, there were still quite a few clouds out.

As I was clearing the driveway for the second time I noticed there were bunches of clouds billowing around the peaks of the Wasatch Mountains so I threw the camera gear into the Land Cruiser and headed up into the mountains. None of the nearby locations were terribly inspiring but I figured I’d give them a shot anyway. It’s been too long since I’ve gotten a decent landscape shot.

I had to drive a bit on an unpaved and unplowed road (the snow was up to the bottom of the door on the Land Cruiser), and then hike a bit in the deep snow, but I found a pretty decent spot with some decent foreground. I took several shots at different angles but settled on the one below. The photo doesn’t wow me but it’s decent enough to put on the site. Maybe it’ll grow on me.

One of the most difficult things about this shot was focusing on something at the hyperfocal distance. I had to focus on something about seven feet out in order to get 3.5 feet to infinity in focus. That turned out to be difficult to do with blinding snow destroying my eyes (snow is hard to focus on) but I was able to get the focus correct for the shot. You can’t check the LCD screen for sharpness in such bright light, making hyperfocal distance cards a must-have.

18mm, 1/200 second, f/11, ISO 100, polarizing filter

Fresh Snow and Photos at Lunch

Cody — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:04:10 +0000

We had some fresh snow last night and this morning so the ground and trees are looking great. The sun came out around noon and things looked quite fantastic, so I headed up to the mountains to see what I could find. I ended up taking shots at about four locations but have yet to see them. Gotta slam some lunch and get back to work. I hope to edit the shots tonight.

Lousy Weather

Cody — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:37:41 +0000

Just wanted to let you know that I’m still around and enjoying photography (though it has been mostly family photography lately). The weather has been uninspiring of late – everything’s dead, there is very little snow, and the inversion has been ever present – so I’m struggling with finding anything to actually photograph. I’ve mostly been scouting out new, promising photo locations so that, once the weather becomes more photogenic, I can get some (hopefully) good photos under my belt.

I’ve also given some thought to this downtime and have decided that, even though the weather isn’t cooperating, I should look for alternative types of photography to explore. I’m going to make a more conscious effort to do so.