New Years Day Photos

Normally I can't get motivated to go out to take photos when it gets really cold. On New Years eve I'd walked over to Museo in the afternoon and there was thick frost which looked interesting, but I hadn't taken a camera. So New Year's day, despite the -30c temperatures I decided to go take some photos.

If you're moving you generate some heat, but when you're standing around it's hard to stay warm. I bundled up suitably with ski pants and parka and my face covered. I stayed warm without getting overheated so I dressed about right. But I felt overdressed when a older man walking his dogs stopped to talk to me. He had on a vest, light gloves, and an ear-band and went on about what a lovely day it was! Only in Saskatchewan :-)

The hardest part was to keep my hands warm. I wore just a light glove on my right hand so I could operate the camera. But by putting my hand in my parka pocket in between shooting I managed to keep it from getting too cold.

Pentax DSLR's like my K-5ii work well in the cold (and they're weather sealed). Although they aren't rated for it I've never had a problem shooting even at -30c. I had a spare battery in an inside warm pocket, but the one in the camera lasted easily for the hour or two that I was outside.

Unfortunately, I didn't get too excited about the photographs. It probably didn't help that I went out close to the middle of the day. I figured this time of year the sun was still low enough to be interesting, but there was no sunrise/sunset color, and the light was very bright on the white snow. And with the cold temperatures the river had frozen over so there wasn't any fog. Still, after editing them down, there are a few reasonable ones.

I started with some dead leaves in the alley on my way down to the river.



This time of year when I walk this path by the river to work it's dark so it was nice to see it in bright sunshine for a change!



There was still good frost although it had started to fall off in places.



The river had frozen in a chaos of ice. (The fog in the background is from open water below the weir.)



I tried to capture the sun glinting through the upthrust plates of ice.



The ice crystals that had formed on the bare ice were fascinating but also hard to capture.



And finally more dead leaves against the bright snow.



See all 17 photos as a slideshow or overview