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Shooting in Sub-Zero Conditions The Sub-Arctic is No Place for Wimps
By © Rick Sammon
In December 2006, I participated in the adventure of a lifetime: a six-day expedition to Canada's Cape Chruchill (58°47'N and 93°15'W) to photograph polar bears, the awesome sub-Arctic scenery and other Arctic wildlife.
This was no trip for wimpy photographers. The temperature, with the wind-chill factor, hovered at 35°F below zero. Shooting time was limited to about six hours of daylight. Conditions onsite were cramped. Plus, there where three days of travel on either side of the expedition.
We shot from Tundra Buggies, specially designed vehicles that look like oversized school buses mounted on six-foot high tires. The windows of our shooting Buggies opened for easy, but "freezy," shooting. We slept, ate and partied on the frozen tundra in separate vehicles also designed for the extreme conditions.
Each day, our team of 30 would venture into the sub-zero conditions. One day, we started out during a "white out" and returned in another snowstorm snow after sunset.
All the challenges of shooting in these conditions were well worth it! Each day we saw and photographed polar bears, some of which came right up to the Tundra Buggies for a look-see. One day, we saw a total of 26 polar bears.
I shot with my Canon 1Ds Mark II and Canon 1D Mark II, always choosing the lowest possible ISO for the cleanest possible picture.
My main lens of choice for photographing the polar bears was my Canon 100-400 IS zoom. The zoom gave me composing flexibility, and in many cases I was able to fill the frame with the polar bears. When the polar bears were no moving around, I used my Canon 400mm DO lens.
When photographing far-off subjects, I used either my Canon 1.4X or 2X tele-converters.
For my scenery photographs, I used my Canon 17-40mm lens on my Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, which has a full-frame image sensor - so the 17mm setting is a true 17mm setting.
Iced Sammon. That says it all!
In the bone-numbing conditions, I used hand warmers (available at ski and camping stores) in my gloves to keep my fingers flexible. Those hand warmers helped me get shots like this portrait of a polar bear walking on the ice while I was standing on the deck of a Tundra Buggy. To keep my batteries warm and charged, I put them in my pants pocket nestled in a hand warmer. Ahhhhhh.
You are probably asking about white balance, because most of the subjects and scenes were white. Well, my fellow photographers who were shooting JEPG files set their white balance to the existing conditions: Sunny on sunny days and Cloudy on cloudy days. Because I shoot only RAW files, I left my white balance on auto, because with a RAW file you can control the white balance in the RAW processing program. With RAW, only the shutter speed, f-stop and ISO are embedded with the file.
Polar bears were not the only wildlife we saw and photographed. Can you see the animal in this picture? Look very carefully.
If you saw the Arctic Hare in the previous picture, you have a great eye! Here is close up of the animal after it moved into a more open area.
On the last day of the trip, we were fortunate to encounter this close encounter between two playful polar bears.
On the expedition, I kept in touch with my family and business associates with my Iridium satellite phone. How cool was that! (For info on Iridium satellite phones, see: www.gardlinecomms.us.)
If you like wildlife photography, if you can stand the bitter cold, and if want to have a totally amazing experience . . . go north, way north, and photograph the amazing and majestic polar bears!
Keep in mind that this adventure is only available in November and December.
For more information on a Tundra Buggy adventure, see www.frontiersnorth.com.
Rick Sammon Bio
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