Seeing photos like these, every winter sports enthusiast dreams of being on the slope again. But also those who aren’t active yet, can’t deny the beauty and that it makes you want more. But there are lots of ingredients for such a perfect ‘day in the snow’.
In this post I’m writing about our weekend in Zillertal and try to give some tips on photos and videos in the snow. By the way, all pictures are to find in the gallery, too.
Perfect weather
Of course, a clear blue sky and sun, not too cold and not too warm and decent snow, that’s perfect. And, to be honest, I only like it this way. In sleet, fog or extreme cold, all others are invited. I just woldn’t enjoy it.
We were lucky on a weekend in early February. On the first day, weather couldn’t have been more perfect. The next day, sun was hiding partially but conditions were great still.
Zillertal (Valley of the Ziller)
Zillertal is a tributary valley of the Inn Valley and is located in Northern Tyrol, close to Germany. It is reached in 90 minutes from Munich which is one of the reasons why we came. This time I didn’t travel with my significant other. As Burcu does neither skiing nor snowboarding, we planned a trip with friends.
In the Zillertal there are various skiing areas. We chose Hochfügen and Hochzillertal (both are connected via chair lifts) on the first day and Spieljoch the second day. Spieljoch is smaller but also less crowded and still a great area.
Accommodation
We booked a great holiday flat in Schlitters: just a 15 minutes ride to the ski lifts, clean, spacious and a very nice landlord. We were lucky that ‘Spindlegger holiday flat’ was still available!
Photos and videos in the snow
I brought my new GoPro Hero 4 Black and took tons of pictures and videos. The video quality was amazing but for photos, especially for panorama, I was happy also having a good compact camera. The pictures taken were even better. But compared to older and cheaper action cams, the Hero 4 Black is really amazing.
Tips for videos
As you can see in the video, I shot videos from three perspectives: the ‘classic’ way, by clipping it on my helmet and capturing myself with a selfie stick.
Mounted on the helmet you experience a great perspective, filming exactly what you see. But it might shake too much, depending on the ground. Long shots can become boring, too.
Using a monopod (selfie stick) has a great advantage: you can see yourself. Very interesting perspective, but be careful: Safety first, so always check if it’s safe to film yourself on the slope.
I could write novels on the ‘right’ settings for your GoPro. There’s a perfect setting for every situation. The camera really offers you a lot. But, to be honest, I wasn’t too keen into changing the settings every now and then. Most of the time I switched only between two modes: 1080p and 90fps (or even 120fps) in sunlight and 1080p and 50fps (or lower) in shadow or when cloudy. Using a tripod you can also use higher resolution (up to 4k). If you know you will want to watch it in slow motion later, fps-value should be as high as possible.
I hope this helps. For me this was the first real test with my new GoPro and I experimented a lot. All in all I really liked it. A great camera, amazing for such a small device.
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