Maybe it’s because I grew up close to the coast in Southern California where the winters were tame and I never saw this sort of thing as a child, but I am absolutely fascinated by the photographic opportunities created by cold weather.  In Northern Utah, we sometimes get a weather pattern creating an ice-cold fog.  It can be dreary when it lasts for weeks on end, but there can be a great reward for those armed with a camera.  From a distance, it may look like snow, but a closer look reveals something very different.  Amazing crystals grow — seemingly indifferent to the forces of gravity — on nearly everything that doesn’t shake them off.

 

This is an opportunity to get close-up and look for patterns and textures.  Because pictures like this are somewhat out-of-context or even abstract, they may not make the most stunning 30”x40” enlargements for your wall, but they can be very nice as computer desktop (“wallpaper”) images or backgrounds for title sequences in videos.  Since you are close-up, you’ll want a lot of depth-of-field, so try for an aperture of f/8 or smaller.  The smaller image sensors of many digital cameras will help in providing some extra depth-of-field.  As with many close-ups, manual focus is best because you’ll get to decide what is most important to get into sharpest focus.  You’ll want to use a tripod for 2 reasons: First, when shooting close-up, even a little movement can radically alter what’s in focus and what’s not.  Second, because you want a small aperture, you’ll most likely end up with a slower shutter speed than can be steadily hand-held.  Fortunately, in the foggy conditions that usually create this sort of a shot, there is very little wind with which to content.  

 

This shot shows the crystal-covered needles and branch of an Austrian Black Pine.  It was taken with an Olympus C-5050Z, exposed for 1/80s at f/8.