This is a baby harp seal I captured on the Magdalen Islands in Nova Scotia back in the 90’s. It was minus 45 degrees. During the close encounter with the seals, I wanted to feel how soft their fur was. Big mistake. at that temperature, the nerve endings in my hand lost sensitivity and I could hardly feel the softness. And second, in the brief moments I removed my three layers of gloves, my fingers got so cold, and so painful, I had to rush back to the helicopter and use the warmth of the interior to prevent frostbite. I then returned to the seals for more photography. I shot this with film, and I used a handheld Sekonic incident light meter to accurately determine the exposure in this whiteout situation. I was shooting transparency film, and there was no room for error. I shot this with a Mamiya RZ II medium format camera (6x7cm slides), a 250mm medium telephoto, and I laid on the snow-covered pack ice for the eye-level shot. The group I was had to wear orange expedition suits over our parkas in case we stepped on thin ice and fell through to the frigid ocean water (we were told to avoid patches of black ice). The neon orange color made it easier to find a person should that unfortunate situation occur. My settings were unrecorded, but they were probably 1/400, f/8, and 100 ISO (Fujichrome Provia 100). The babies keep their white, furry coats for only about 3 weeks.
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