Hard Time Photographing During A Snow

[Sal Santamaura]

Andy, the warm tone on that XTOL negative isn't a result of the developer being old. Both negatives are of relatively high density. XTOL has always given warm tones in high density areas. It's also associated with "mushier" grain and lower acutance compared to your FX-55 negative.

The only other technical nuisance comment I can provide is to remind you that there are things called hand warmers available for your pockets. Placing your hands in there intermittently will prevent them from getting red or, even worse, frostbitten. Putting one under your cap might even avoid exposure calculation errors.

[John Layton]

...and I'd like to reiterate my earlier edit regarding my entry about photographing on a mountaintop in extremely cold conditions - that Andrew actually had it much worse than I, in that my film holders were (very) cold and dry...and so long as I made sure they were zip locked up securely before bringing them indoors, I'd be fine - whereas Andrew was working in an active and very wet snowfall, which truly makes me shudder!

[Eric James]

Another strategy for keeping your bare hands functional in the cold is to:

1) Let them freeze up good and solid.

2) Go inside to warm them thoroughly until the very last of the numbness abates. Once rewarmed, you'll be good to go.

This trick was shared among climbers at a local crag. The mechanism behind the response was explained to me by a cardiovascular physiologist who said, "something, something, reactive hyperemia."

Unfortunately, some years ago this type of photography became impossible when our local Timmy's was shuttered.

[pgk]

Its a real pity that there is no video record of Samuel Bourne shooting wetplate at 18,600 feet in the Himalayan snow in 1866. Shooting in the cold can be awkward, shooting large format difficult, but shooting wetplate in the 1860s must have been extremely hard work. The text does comment 'after near fatal hardships'!
See: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/286879

[maltfalc]

Like that tent!

Wasn't there some kind of tent that you'd basically throw up in the air, upon which it would "un-pop" itself, and land on the ground as a fully erected tent? Or did I dream this? Hmmm...

that tent is a pop-up tent. lots of them out there, i just picked that link because i like the double zipper. there are also pop-up changing tents or portable showers that are basically the same thing and under $50.

[Drew Wiley]

I've done it on ice and in high altitude snow many many time, even in high winds. Patience, plus a big black Goretex dark cloth (industrial Velcro on the corners). But that ain't nuthin'. I've got a book with a picture of Vittoria Sella hauling his large plate camera up to 23,000 feet on Chogolisa in the Karakoram range using a simple pack frame. It was another half century before anyone reached the actual summit, however. A climbing partner of my nephew was kidnapped on the way to Chogolisa and held for ransom; but he managed to sneak a note out with the ethnic camp cook, and was recused a month later, and wrote a book about the ordeal. That was when the Taliban was active in northern Pakistan; but ironically, it was his own Govt authorized liaison officer who was the culprit, and hauled off to prison for it.

A famous high altitude climber once offered to take me as high as Camp II on Dhaulagiri, to set a world altitude record with a large format camera (Camp II is at about 25,000 ft). I opted out and got married instead. Only now, decades later, have I learned just what an extremely dangerous avalanche-prone route that is, and susceptible to ferocious winds. Probably both me and my camera would have become a kite. He did summit it himself.

Wet snow like Andrew was in can sure be a headache in terms of keeping gear dry. We mainly get wet snow in the Sierra Nevada too. Then when it easily freezes up after a partial thaw, and another storm arrives - avalanches. I don't know if my snowshoes will ever get a decent workout again; I no longer have a house in the mountains; but those were much better than skis for getting up close to things and stomping down a suitable tripod platform. But when it comes to tripods themselves, my choice is the big wooden Ries with spike feet, rather than a lighter CF. It really helps to have some sheer bully mass when working in the snow and wind.