As I had mentioned with the "Wanna Play 2009" description, this shot was taken on one of my very first trips into the Canadian sub arctic. I didn't have much experience shooting in the extreme cold....and I had a little learning to do.

I was shooting with a Nikon D300, a wonderful camera at the time but long since retired. And I had this coupled to a 600mm, f/4 lens....which is the go-to gold standard for most serious wildlife work.

Now, what I really didn't seem to understand back then is that when you are looking through the viewfinder of the camera, your exhaled breath is going directly onto the back of the camera. At maybe 20 breaths a minute for roughly 5 hours, this makes 6,000 breaths onto the back of the camera (did the math in my head, so I could be wrong). At any rate, those 6,000 breaths have a lot of moisture in them....and guess what that moisture does. Yep....it freezes on the back of the camera. Remember....it was -50C.

When the sun slid behind the clouds and I lost most of my light, I tried to adjust the camera settings....boost the ISO for more light sensitivity. But all the camera controls were frozen solid....couldn't adjust a thing. So I had to shoot with the settings as they were....1/400 second shutter speed, f/4 aperture and and ISO of 400. And that poor old D300....its shutter squeaked and compained with every shot....but it kept on ticking. Thanks for reading.