
-14°F Sunrise at Boyson Trail, Marion, Iowa
I won’t say that it sucks, just gets very hard.
I lasted a half hour outside all bundled up and got incredibly frustrated as every time I exhaled, my glasses fogged over. Will need to remedy that with ski googles, an idea from Eric’s blog about his adventure to Boyson Park the day before I went. He would have called me, but he was really sick when he went out there.
The hike marked the first time I’ve accidentally pressed the shutter button while trying to focus the camera. The focus ring was sticking due to the cold and I had to move the camera to a better angle to be able to focus. I did it again last night, but it was 35°F warmer and for this time, I’m blaming the gloves. I think the rapid focus lever would be a lifesaver in situations like this, but you’d need one for each lens; not a problem for me since I only rock the 75mm f/2.8 MC.
The battery in the camera was brand new so I didn’t worry about it losing power due to the temperature, but I could tell my shutter wasn’t running at the right speeds 20 minutes into the adventure. I don’t think that is an issue isolated to leaf shutters, just cameras that aren’t properly weather sealed. I wasn’t worried about the shutter speeds as I was shooting expired Kodak Portra 400NC and C-41 films have good exposure latitude.
I love taking pictures in the winter, it’s a lot of fun and there can be some great photographs made. I’m hoping the rest of this season works out well, we’re in a slight warm-up here in Iowa and the snow is slowly melting which sucks.





