Last week a Polar Vortex hit Toronto along with most of the North East of North America. It was the coldest week I can remember here. So, naturally, I thought it would be a great opportunity to go out for a trek into the Rouge Valley National Park, and practice some outdoor photography skills.
I brought my brand new camera gear, and my friend and fellow YouTuber, Maiku Wong, and hopped into a car and we headed up. Maiku was super excited because he just purchased a new coat that he thought would be extra hot and perfect for the experience. I don’t know that it ended up that way.
Maiku, being the seasoned travel vlogger he is, was the one that suggested the Rouge Valley, which apparently is a newly designated national park in the Toronto area. Neither of us had been there before, and apparently it was pretty cool, but we both didn’t realize that even with our super warm clothing it would be way more than we bargained for.
Lessons Learned
Here are a couple things I learned about photography under extreme cold conditions:
Lesson learned #1: Always bring lots of extra (charged) batteries. In colder than -30℃ those batteries can die super quick on you. (I had two batteries die in less than 10 minutes each).
Lesson Learned #2: Bring even warmer gear than you think you need. The polar vortex brought cold temperatures of less than -30℃ and when you are out on an outdoor trek like that you get colder way faster than you think. I lost feeling in my fingers trying to change the settings on my camera in a matter of minutes.
Lesson Learned #3: Have a warm place to go back to when you need shelter and to fix things on your camera. Plan that out beforehand. Thankfully, we had the car nearby and went back to that several times just to get away from the cold and change up settings and batteries and so on. We couldn’t get very far out because we definitely needed this. Had we not had the car with us we would have been in big trouble.
Still we managed to get some great photos and I can’t wait to go back when it’s a bit warmer.
Where are your favourite places to take outdoor shots? Share your tips for shooting in extreme conditions in the comments.
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