Portrait session in the Snow

I’m  so happy to be sharing some of my favourite images from my first shoot of 2015. What better way to start the year than with a portrait session in the snow. Just by way of background, I should mention that the shoot took place in Vilnius where I was on my 2-week holiday visiting family.

The shoot nearly did not happen as the weather was rather uncooperative: the first week saw no snow at all and then when it did eventually fall, temperatures dropped to -18C. A little too extreme even for those of us well used to the cold.  Fortunately, 2 days before my flight back to Dublin the frost eased off and a heavy snow storm was forecast for the night. I knew it was now or never, our time to ‘make hay while the sun is shining’ or in our case ‘shoot snow while it has not melted’. Such was the motto for the day as my model Lina and I prepared for the shoot.

When I looked out the window that morning the ground was pure white. There was so much snow! Perfection. All that was left to do was dig out the car from the snow, drive up to the nearest forest collecting Lina on the way and start taking pictures.

I have to say that despite frozen fingers, red noses and difficult driving conditions I loved every minute of the process. The snow was so fresh, ours were the first footprints laid on the paths in the forest. So pure and undisturbed was the scene and so beautiful was my model – what else could a photographer wish for.

With rain forecast for late morning, we were very focused and moved fast. We finished just in time, when it started to rain. Two days later the snow was nearly gone.

I hope the snow will come to Dublin this year (and I realise I’m in the minority on this one) so that a few more snowy photo shoot ideas can be brought to life.