Woohoo! Anyone got any polar winter photography advice?

[DaveB]

If you follow my blog you may have noticed this come up in the last day.

I'm very excited! This is the trip behind things like my recent search for wide and fast lenses.

For those who didn't read the article behind that link, I'll be the Artist in Residence aboard a ship in Norway for most of December! With 5 weeks on board I'm actually going to spend both my birthday and Christmas Day in the Arctic.
Now get on over there and read the rest of the article!

[whitey]

Wow. Very, very jealous. Look forward to seeing the results.

[aim54x]

Wow. Very, very jealous. Look forward to seeing the results.

enjoy it!

[gstark]

Dave,

Congratulations; how exciting is that for you?

I presume that this is the opportunity that you alluded to a couple of weeks back, and I can only imagine the preparations that you will be going through to make this all happen for you.

The frightening thing is that you probably have just a little more than a month to prepare for this; that is not a long lead-in at all.

Good luck with this; I am sure it will be a great experience for you, as well as a wonderful work event in your life.

We look forward to seeing some wonderful images from this trip, and to hear the great stories that you will be able to share in due course.

[photohiker]

Congratulations, that will be awesome.

We did a trip on the MS Trollfjord's sister ship the MS Midnatsol in Sept/Oct 2006 from Kirkenes to Bergen and absolutely loved it. I can't speak highly enough of the country, the company or the ships. It's on our list to go back in Winter and spend time above the arctic circle but not this year. They say you have to be lucky to see the Aurora on any trip, but we saw it from the taxi on the way to our hotel in Kirkenes and several times on the voyage. Photographing it is another thing of course, especially from a moving boat.

The scenery and atmosphere above the circle is magical. You will love it. Looking forward to seeing your results and hearing about your experiences!

Michael

[biggerry]

Woohoo! Anyone got any polar winter photography advice?

yep, stay outta the water, I hear it's kinda cold Good luck and have fun!

[ATJ]

Woohoo! Anyone got any polar winter photography advice?

Um... there's a member here that recently went to the Antarctic. Perhaps he could provide some advice. His avatar has a shot of him in a yellow parka at the Antarctic. He shoots Canon which may not be a good thing.

[Big V]

Dave, congratulations on this. I really do hope you get to see the Aurora as it is one on Natures true wonders. Photographing it wont be a problem as they are so bright you can easily get the shot in 30 seconds at 400 ISO. The northern lights have more green in them than the southern. Enjoy and I look forward to you photos as the last lot were fantastic.

[DaveB]

The frightening thing is that you probably have just a little more than a month to prepare for this; that is not a long lead-in at all.

I'm not starting from scratch though. I've known about this opportunity for months, but it's taken ages to sort out the contract and exact voyage details (the dates shifted slightly just last week before we got the contract finished!).

So I've been doing background planning and thinking for ages. Thus things like my hunt for wide/fast lenses (I'm hoping to have a 24mm/1.4L in my hands by the end of the week).
My wife jokes (?) that I'm a bit OCD: I have a calendar/planner set up in Excel with details of the entire trip, including things like how long each sea leg is, what time we arrive/depart each port, when dawn/dusk and civil/nautical/astro twilight times are, moon phases, and what the times back home will be (need to coordinate phone calls home when in port). On each 11-day voyage up and down the coast we'll stop in ports 66 times (some of which I'll sleep through) so it's a fairly busy schedule, and I need to be able to fit in all my shooting, my photo workshops, my photo processing (including preparing DVDs of material to post off in port), as well as getting the right amount of regular sleep. And be able to keep going with that schedule for 5 weeks (3 back-to-back voyages)! I'm definitely looking forward to the challenge.

And I'm not starting from scratch on gear/etc either. There's very little equipment (warm clothes, etc) that I have to buy: I'm just refining my equipment from the last Antarctic voyage. BTW, there's a 3-page article "Shots in the Dark" by Tony Page in the Winter 2009 edition of Better Photography magazine. Tony did the voyage as a passenger over Christmas, and I drilled him for details a few months ago.

It is going to be a busy time over the next month, but my main concern is to make sure I've got all my teaching/assessment commitments satisfied before I leave in mid-Nov (last classes are end of October, but usually there'd be things to sign off on in December - I have to get all that sorted before I disappear for the rest of the year). In fact I've just got back after having my swine flu vaccination, so it's non-stop.

They say you have to be lucky to see the Aurora on any trip, but we saw it from the taxi on the way to our hotel in Kirkenes and several times on the voyage. Photographing it is another thing of course, especially from a moving boat.

Thus my intended use of a 5DmkII (prob @ ISO 3200) with EF 24mm/1.4L (prob @ f/1.6) for that! I will have a tripod with me if I see the Aurora when I'm on land, although shooting from amongst the streetlights of a town is not one of the shots I have in mind. Actually, believe it or not I expect the tripod will get a little use on the ship.
Indeed it will be a challenge.

Um... there's a member here that recently went to the Antarctic. Perhaps he could provide some advice.

That was polar SUMMER photography.

We look forward to seeing some wonderful images from this trip, and to hear the great stories that you will be able to share in due course.

I'm trying to get my site set up with a close-to-realtime map of my location and have blog updates every couple of days, and I've got a series of articles prepped to go beforehand talking about things like my travel/gear preparations.

[surenj]

Congrats and good luck Dave. Hope your gear hold up and spirits sail high!

It looks like a complicated undertaking. I don't envy you with regard to the weather though...

[big pix]

....... my advise would be very warm underware...... and I want to join you

[photohiker]

It all depends on the weather and the seas, but I found the boat to be reasonably stable. The tripod got used quite a lot as a result on our trip. (well, it was a new toy too, so that may have accounted for some of it)

At night, if the Aurora presents itself, it is announced in multiple languages over the PA (english was the last!) So, if you react as we did, you land up seeing it at some crazy hours. I did get one interesting if not good photo of it from the Ship handheld 2 seconds at F4 using a stanchion for support. That's photohiker junior enjoying the view in the middle of the night.

Now I really want to go back. Have a great trip!

Michael

[Willy wombat]

That is excelent news for you DAve - Go forth and create something wonderful (and come back safe)

[Alpha_7]

Congrats Dave that is an awesome opportunity, and having seen your antartic summer photos I'm sure your Artic winter photos will be great, looking forward to seeing them.

(OT photohiker - cool gallery of your Norway trip).

[DaveB]

I did get one interesting if not good photo of it from the Ship handheld 2 seconds at F4 using a stanchion for support.

Certainly a shot to remember even if it's not perfect!
At the same ISO but @ f/1.6 I'd be able to get a shutter speed of a third of a second, and I do have the options of going up in ISO all the way to 25,600 (which would be 1/25s for the same exposure). Beyond 3200 the noise becomes an issue, but a slightly noisy 6400 shot would probably be better than a slightly blurry 3200 shot.

Thanks for the link to your Norway gallery. Another interesting link to add to the trip file...

[Killakoala]

I'm delighted for you Dave. I have no doubt that you will have a great time up there. Although I do have some experience travelling Northern Russia and Siberia, it was in the summer time and there was only a couple of hours of darkness each night.

Good luck with the auroras. I check THIS website to see if there are any upcoming auroras sue but it's been a bit bare lately due to a very quiet time on the surface for the sun recently as it's sunspot cycle is in 'downtime.' It should be picking back up soon hopefully so you might get some good light shows.

But regardless of auroras, I reckon it will be a great trip. Congratulations.

[Antsl]

Hi Dave... Congrats.... sounds like it will be a fantastic opportunity to have a look about in a fantastic corner of the world! Looking forward to see what you come back with already!

[Matt. K]

Dave
Well Done and congratulations! You are the right guy for the job and I know you'll maximise your opportunities and come back with some stunning imagery. I'd almost be tempted to urge you to buy a Hasselblad and shoot some B&W film because this is one hell of an opportunity to construct a Master Portfolio. Like all of the forum members I'll be looking forward to updates here and on your blog. Good luck!

[photohiker]

Calling DaveB, are you back yet?

Hope it all worked out well.

Looking forward to hearing about it.

Michael