shooting polaroids in antarctica
Monday, March 26, 2012 at 9:30PM Several folks have asked what it was like shooting Polaroids on my recent trip to Antarctica. I'm happy to oblige!
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The temperatures in Antarctica weren't too terribly cold, since it was summer time. We're talking about 25 degrees Fahrenheit. It was often windy, and the air was very dry.
I was working with two main types of films and cameras: integral film with a Polaroid SLR680, and packfilm (aka "type 100" or "peelapart") film with a Polaroid Land Camera 360.
For integral film shots (PX600, PX70, and expired Polaroid), I would take the shot and then slip the exposure under my armpit. I just kept piling them up in there until at least 15 minutes or so had passed, and then moved them to the pocket of the fleece jacket I was wearing under my outer jacket. For shots usingImpossible Project film, which is especially sensitive to light after it comes out of the camera, I kept it out of the light as much as humanly possible. Always use your body's own shadow to your advantage.
While carrying the camera and film outside for hours, I realized it was becoming a problem that my packs of film themselves were becoming too cold. This was a problem for development, since the chemicals were already cold before the film was ejected from the camera, and warming them up afterwards just wasn't cutting the mustard. It also caused a bit of a problem with the battery, which doesn't perform as well when it's cold. My solution was to put some chemical hand warmer packs in one pocket of my backpack, and put the film in an adjacent pocket. I feel like the handwarmers got a bit too hot, so I was nervous about doing more damage than good, but I think it did really end up being helpful.
The "hand warmers in the backpack" technique also helped keep the cameras themselves warm (when they were in my backpack). When I was carrying a camera and not using it, I made sure to keep it under my parka where it was warmer.
The packfilm shots were trickier to deal with in the cold because you have to time the development before peeling them apart. I used Polaroid Chocolate, Polaroid Blue, Polaroid Sepia, Fuji FP100C, Fuji FP100B, and Fuji FP3000B films. Basically I found that using the indicated development time at the coldest temperature on the scale (55 degrees fahrenheit) worked when using the "cold clip". I would take a photo, very quickly insert it into the cold clip and then slip it under my fleece and in my armpit. Then use my watch to time the development and peel apart.
It's very helpful to have pants with a zippered leg pocket to collect all the trash that is generated. I was extremely careful to keep a grip on everything, it was often windy and I was usually wearing gloves, and there was no way I was going to risk losing some trash in such a spectacularly pristine landscape.
The biggest thing I learned here is to keep the cold clip in a warm place even when not using it. If it's cold when you put the photo into it, the results are not as good.
One thing that was helpful was that the air down there was very dry. This meant that the peel-apart exposures dried quickly. When the emulsion is dry, it's much less susceptible to scratches and other damage, which makes it easier to stash them away with confidence. (Antarctica is considered a desert because it is so dry.)
When we were hiking around on land, I'd be outside for several hours, so I had to collect all the shots I was taking. I just collected them in an empty cardboard Polaroid film box after holding them in the air to dry for a minute or so.
When I was taking photos from the deck of the ship, I'd often run back in to my cabin before pulling the peel-apart photo out of the camera. There was a cabinet with a refrigerator in it that was always warm, so I put the photos in there to develop.
Back onboard the ship, I labeled and dated each exposure and then slipped it into a protective plastic bag. Use an ultra-fine tip Sharpie permanent marker for the packfilm shots. For the integral shots, use a Sharpie metallic silver pen so you can write on the black reverse of the exposure. Be careful with the silver Sharpie, though, sometimes it takes a few seconds to dry completely.
Next, I made sure to slip each exposure into a protective sleeve. See my post on sleeves for Polaroids for more details.
I was happy I brought some Scotch tape on this trip, it came in handy on a number of occasions. One of the fun this I did was to create an impromptu photo gallery on the door of my cabin. At the end of each day, I'd hang some of the best shots I'd taken to the door. The plastic sleeves were critical to protect my precious images!
Overall, the most important key to success in the cold weather (and indeed whenever you're shooting with any kind of camera) is to treat every shot as if it's the best one you've ever taken. Don't let the excitement of your project tempt you to cut any corners.
Happy shooting!
cold, film, impossible, instant, integral, packfilm, photography, polaroid, project, technique in Photography, Places, Polaroid 
