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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/15 sec, f/22, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Rare Photo of Japanese Abominable Snowman

Having mostly conquered the ability to drive in snow on our recent trip to snowy Toyama Prefecture, four hours' drive north of Kyoto, I thought to see whether I could enhance my ability to take photographs in the snow. At our first big stop in the snow, the historic Gokayama Village, while Anthony played on a slight hill covered with a lot of snow, I tried different shutter speeds so that I could inspect the effect they had in capturing the moving snow.

The results are not too useful in an absolute basis because snow falls at different speeds, ranging from a driving blizzard down to the very slow, silent fall on a calm morning where it seems as if the snow is falling in bullet time. (Memories from when I was a kid, of delivering newspapers at 3am on a dead-still Ohio Sunday morning during this kind of snow are very fond... well, except for the whole “delivering newspapers” and “3am” parts.)

It also depends on the focal length used, and I was not consistent.

Also working against these results is the haphazard way I did them. I thought “hey, maybe I'll try different shutter speeds”, asked Anthony to stand still for a bit, and took some shots. No planning, no tripod, no skill... just blessed ignorance.

Anyway, inspecting how the falling snow looks in each of these shots gives some ideas about what to expect.... something very slow like 1/20th or 1/30th of a second gives a great snowfall effect, at the cost of added worry about camera shake and the movement of other items in the scene....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/13 sec, f/22, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
¹/13 sec
looks like rain

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — ¹/20 sec, f/22, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
¹/20 sec
could be confused for rain (except for the HUGE PILES OF SNOW everywhere 🙂 )

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm — ¹/30 sec, f/16, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
¹/30 sec
gives a nice sense of the heaviness of the snowfall

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — ¹/40 sec, f/13, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
¹/40 sec
also nice, one flake near the lens puts a big white blog on Anthony's skipants

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/10, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
¹/100 sec
still offers a sense of movement

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/13, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
¹/160 sec
no movement in the snow, but not crisp either

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
¹/200 sec
no sense of movement in the snow,
but less worry about camera shake and subject blur.
(Anthony is in the air, mid jump, from the top of the mound)

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
¹/800 sec
very crisp

This last one is the one seen yesterday as Rosy Cheeks

Here's another pair of a different subject. You can see at the bottom of the thatched roof the multiple layers of different materials, as seen the other day on a different house.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 34 mm — ¹/60 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
¹/60 sec

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 34 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
¹/250 sec

Finally, yet another pair taken of a grove of trees at a toll gate of a highway later in the day:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/30 sec, f/13, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
¹/30 sec

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
¹/640 sec

Continued here...