How cold is too cold ?

so after spending all day in yesterday, i took it apon myself to head out for some fresh air and photos.
i walked out to start my car, and load the camera gear, when i noticed that it was really cold, much colder then i thought. So back into the house i went to layer myslef, in hopes of keeping the chil off of me.
jeans, polar tech fleece, two pairs of gloves, a hat, and a polar tech hood, these should all do the trick, or so i thought. i bundled up when i got to sandy hook for what was left of the afternoon. about 1 hour before the sun was to set. as i put on the final touches, hat then polar tech hood, then one set of thin gloves, followed by the thicker outer set. bundled up i headed to the lighthouse to start to shoot.

as the moon was rising from the east and the sun setting in the west, i used the building in the area to block me from the heavy wind that was coming from the west. it was cold but not too terrible. i was switching between my old Nikon N90 film camera, and two of my Nikon digital cameras, D100 & D70s. So i was hoping that i had all of my photographic bases covered.

the moon still low in the afternoon sky allowed me to get some nice shots of the lighthouse tower, and the the moon. i was switching from camera to camera because they all had different lenses on them. giving me a different perspective with each camera i grabbed. the first problem i encountered was that with thick gloves i have issues with changing any settings on the camera. i couldnt manipulate the small buttons or command dials. so off would come one glove at a time for each task as needed. with frozen fingers and the ambient light starting to fade, i headed to around the lighthouse to get what shots i could. as i walked back to the car, i turned to look at the lighthouse before heading to the other side of fort hancock to catch the setting sun. as i looked at the lighthouse, i noticed that the moon had moved a great deal, so i wanted to take several shots with the top of the tower, and the moon just about next to the lights own beacon. this is when i discovered something very interesting. my high priced digital cameras had become disabled by the extreme cold of this winter afternoon. with the windchill the temps were in the single digits. according to one of the weather sites it was 9 degress with the wind chill. and man let me tell you something, it felt every bit that cold.........

So with two cameras down, and the only one still working being my old trusty film camera i snapped away. the next problem i encountered was that its really a pain in the ass to have to chage rolls of film after just 24 exposures...... another reason digital is so damn user friendly. just take out another memory card and install it after taking some 600 exposures. so again off came the gloves to load another roll of film, but atleast i still had the ability to shoot.
in the teeth of the blowing wind, i lasted only a few minutes again before calling it quits. i had enough. frozen hands, two cameras down, and the only good thing to shoot was the area where the wind was the worst. i retreated back to the car and warmth for the ride home.

its now hours later. and my hands are still not feeling right. a bit numb on the edges and finger tips. and i cant help but feel better about being outside, then sitting in and to waste an afternoon, after all i got nothing from yesterday. it was overcast and cold. atleast today the sun was out !

well thats all for now. im going to wrap my hands around a nice hot beverage and get the rest of the chill out of my body.

until the next photo adventure comes........

mike
=)
01/20/2008