Gear · Sep 3, 2026 · 8 min read
One body, two lenses and a surprising amount of wool. What actually comes with me when it is minus twenty.
The coldest shoot I have done was minus twenty-four with wind. At that temperature, every extra thing in your bag is something you have to take your gloves off to deal with, so the kit gets simple very quickly.
These days it is one weather-sealed body, a mid-range zoom and a short telephoto. No tripod head with fiddly knobs, just a ball head I can work with mittens on. Spare batteries live in an inside pocket against my chest, because cold drains them in minutes.
The less obvious things matter more: a microfibre cloth in a sealed bag for when the lens fogs coming back indoors, a headtorch with a red mode for pre-dawn walks, and a thermos big enough for two people, because there is usually a guide who deserves a cup.
The rest is clothing. Thin merino layers, a down jacket that packs into its own hood, and two pairs of gloves so one is always drying. If you are warm, you are patient. If you are patient, the pictures follow.
Elena CrossLandscape and travel photographer, writing between trips from Edinburgh.
