I've been deep in preparation for LIVE!, which means long hours at my desk. The temperature took a huge swing into the 70s°F (20s°C), making it tough to stay indoors.

But once the weekend wraps up, it'll all be worth it because I'm going to be brimming with creative sparks ready to catch fire. Every year, the energy and camaraderie from the LIVE! conference kicks my photography into high gear, and I know I'll be outside with my camera a whole lot more.

In this trail marker, I'm sharing the advice I wish I'd received when I first started building my landscape photography kit. There's a bunch of fun facts on frost and some of the LIVE! sessions I'm excited to join this weekend.

Sending my best,

CAMPFIRE Q&A
​Answers to your burning questions

Wondering which gear is actually essential for landscape photography? In this Q&A, I share the lessons I wish I had known when I first started investing in landscape photography gear—from lenses to tripods and filters.

NATURALIST'S NOTEBOOK
​Scientific insights to deepen your connection to the natural world

The Science of Frosty Formations

Winter mornings hold a world of icy wonders, from delicate frost flowers to intricate hoarfrost and shimmering frost patterns on windshields. While these phenomena may seem similar, their formation processes are beautifully distinct.

Frost Flowers​
These ribbon-like ice sculptures form when air temperatures drop below freezing but the ground remains warm enough for plants to draw water through their stems. The water seeps through tiny cracks and freezes into thin, petal-like layers. For the best chance to capture these fleeting beauties, look for mornings following the first hard frost of the season. They're most common on plants with sturdy stems, like frostweed or white crownbeard. Frost flowers are fleeting, delicate, and best photographed early in the morning before sunlight melts them away.

Hoarfrost​
Ever notice trees, fences, or even spider webs coated in a spiky, white frost? That's hoarfrost. Unlike frost flowers, hoarfrost forms directly from water vapor in the air. When humid air encounters a freezing surface, the vapor turns directly into ice crystals, creating a feathery, crystalline texture. You'll often find it on shaded surfaces like the north side of trees, where sunlight won't quickly melt the formations. It's most common on clear, cold mornings with calm winds, when still air allows the crystals to grow uninterrupted.

Frost Patterns on Surfaces​
The intricate, fern-like designs on car windshields or decks occur when water vapor freezes along microscopic imperfections on smooth surfaces. These branching or radiating shapes form as temperature and surface variations interact, creating stunning, almost artistic formations. Around your home, you’ll find these patterns on glass windows, metal patio furniture, or even the lids of garbage bins—each surface showcasing its own frosty masterpiece.

Tips for Capturing Frosty Details

• Use a macro lens to highlight intricate textures. No macro? A telephoto lens can work, letting you zoom in and compress the scene for sharp details.
• Look for frosty formations at dawn, when the soft light and vibrant colors bring out their beauty.
• A polarizer can help reduce glare on glass or other smooth surfaces, making details pop.

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P.S. If you like this naturalist notebook segment, make sure you check out Jennifer Renwick's newsletter as well for a deeper dive into hoarfrost, her insights are always a treat for nature lovers! Great minds think, and apparently, write alike!

OUT OF CHICAGO LIVE! PRE-EVENTS
​The best online photography conference is ready to roll

Out of Chicago LIVE! is gearing up for a packed weekend. Josh Cripps kicked off the pre-events on Sunday night with an insightful (and hilarious) deep dive into composition with practical steps to create more compelling compositions. If you sign up for the conference, you can watch it immediately.

With over 100 sessions kicking off this Friday, now it the time to grab your ticket! Here's a look at what I'll be teaching:

• 📷 Ten Lightroom Essentials Every Photographer Needs to Know – Unlock hidden gems that make editing and organizing in Lightroom a breeze.
• 🏔 Grand Landscape Image Review with Kristen Ryan – We'll share helpful feedback on your grand landscape photos to refine your vision and technique.
• 🎒 Ask Me Anything: Gear for Landscape Photography with Nye Simmons – A no-holds-barred session to answer all your burning questions about the best tools for the field.

And here's a look at only some of the 50 main presentations that I'm excited to join over the weekend.

FOCUS POINTS
​To utter, repeat, and shape our mindset

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

TRAIL FINDS
​Curated resources, news, and inspiration for your journey

1.) Unlock the potential of Photoshop with Mike Mezeul in his one day online photo class on February 15th.

2.) Let Cole Thompson and John Barclay inspire you with their Cole & John Photo Show and this episode on Making the Most Despite Limitation.

3.) Read Bruce Harris' Wintering, a contemplative piece about photography, memory, and perception that explores how we capture fleeting moments in nature are captured through our lens.

4.) A trip to Antarctica is out of the realm of possibility for me, so instead, I vicariously live through Michael Frye and Claudia Welsh as Michael regales us with their adventures in Antarctica.🐧

5.) Michele Sons is on fire this week! She released her long anticipated eBook Dawnland and her Fairy Forest image won the OM System “Creativity. It’s In Our Nature” international photography competition. Congrats Michele! 🎉

6.) Eric Bennett's new monograph Moments of Quite Wonder is available for pre-order.

7.) Jennifer King will host a live webcast on Adobe Lightroom Processing: Everything You Need to Know on Tuesday, February 11th at 7:00 Eastern.

8.) Sarah Marino released not one, not two, but three 2024 in Review articles: Black and White, Plant Portraits, Nature Photos.

9.) The Honing Our Craft series from Nature Photography Classes starts tomorrow, February 5th, with Kristen Ryan as well as weekly sessions from Susan Magnano, Stephanie Johnson, and Paul Nguyen.

10.) Watch and learn as William Patino critiques and shows how he would edit submitted images from Leanne Cullen.

11.) ICYMI: See this first-of-its-kind footage, taken in January 2024 via drone, that captures a rare event of emperor penguin chicks jumping from a 50-foot cliff as a way to adapt to declining sea ice.

nature photography • photo education • lightroom training

Copyright © Chrissy Donadi Photography, All Rights Reserved.
​606 Liberty Avenue, 3rd Floor, #107, Pittsburgh, PA 15222​
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