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Sometimes really nice pictures have been caught with a simple point and shoot.
For those with fairly sophisticated camera gear: you'll get some decent photos with lenses that range from 28mm up to 300mm, but you'll get better pictures and more of them if you have a longer lens.(I had an 18mm 28-105 and a 75-300mm lens, both Sigmas and a used Tokina 400mm, when I went up there. The 400mm was not quite enough for getting the really close-in pix I yearned to capture, although it gave me quite a few pretty good ones. The 18mm was good for panoramic landscapes or VERY close in, emphasized exaggerated features with high-detail backgrounds. If I had to limited myself I'd take the 28-105 and as long a telephoto as I could manage) Consider renting a 500mm super telephoto back home and bringing it with you--a far cheaper alternative than buying one. Them suckers, to buy, cost as much as a used car! |
If you can manage/afford it, bring along two camera bodies. Attach a wide angle zoom on one, and a tele zoom on the other. You don't want to be caught with the wrong lens on your one-and-only camera body, as I was, when a bear came right up and stuck his head in the door of the bus! I had my 75-300mm lens screwed on when I should have had my 28-105mm. I managed to salvage one picture, but I'd have gotten more and better pictures had I been prepared. Or take one camera body and a simple point and shoot for emergencies such as that.
Take extra batteries! The selection in Churchill is very limited and very, very expensive. You will probably need to rotate your batteries, because the cold weather will slow them down. They can be warmed up and reused, however.
Bringing a camera into a warm interior from the very cold outdoors will cause condensation, a bad situation, especially for modern, delicate electronic gear. You should consider taking along a plastic bag(s) large enough to accommodate every camera and lens you've taken out into the cold. With your equipment safely ziplocked inside, you'll know it's the plastic protective shell, not your gear, that gets dew-dampened.
Take plenty of film! For the same reason: poor selection, high prices if you try to buy locally.
Be aware that a dark day in the Arctic will show up darker than a dark day further south. If you are shooting outdoors on a dark day, you might want to consider using your flash attachment.
If snow is on the ground, be sure to OVEREXPOSE
your pictures by a stop and a half to two. Owners of point-and-shoots
with a backlight compensation button should be sure to activate
it. Otherwise, the built-in meter will UNDEREXPOSE to compensate
for all that whiteness and you'll end up with gray snow and gray
polar bears.
To concentrate your bear-related info in one sitting, go onto Bear Facts This was the link accessible from the Intro page. If you've already seen it and are interested in reading more about nature's most lovable predator, you might want to visit Bear Safety Fundamentals, or explore.
Otherwise, return to to see what you'll need to take and watch out for during other times of year.
Or to Introduction to Churchill
Or forge on ahead to Reasons to visit to get an idea of why the place is so attractive to scientists, photographers and other people who have nature-related interests.
created 06/26/02