Cold Weather Nikon

I have had a few visits to this blog from people googling about cameras and cold weather. While I can't speak much about other cameras I can say lots about the Nikon D40. I purchased my D40 last fall and have had ZERO problems with it in the cold weather. I am very pleased with it's cold weather performance.

I use it in ALL weather, and when I say cold I don't mean 20F cold, I mean
-20F and colder cold. I only have one battery for this camera, and so far that is all I have needed. There are times when I go out in the country for several hours in temps well below zero and shoot at least 200 photos. I have never had any problems with the cold affecting the battery. As a matter of fact I have found that the Nikon D40 has exceptional battery life in all conditions. Using the built in flash does use the battery up faster, but it still has the best battery life of any camera I have ever owned (although I admit I have only ever owned 4 other digital cameras).

The Nikon 18-200mm VR lens also holds up well in the cold. At first it made me nervous to try and use it at -25F with blowing snow conditions but it has performed flawlessly.....even after dropping the thing on the floor in Juneau. I nearly had a heart attack. The fall broke the lens cap, step up ring and uv filter but the lens itself was unscathed.

A received a couple very useful cold weather photography tips from Seth Kantner. When shooting photos when it is snowing, you should allow your camera to become as cold as the air outside before you take it out of the case. That way the camera is cold and the snow will bounce right off the camera and the lens. If your camera is warm the snow will hit the camera and melt and cause water droplets on your lens that show up in your photos and can also get the camera wet and cause problems when it refreezes. The second piece of advice was, after returning home and going inside, allow the camera to return to room temp before removing it from the case. this avoids the camera becoming covered with condensation and possibly causing water damage. If I need the pics off the camera in a hurry I will quickly open the case and plug in the camera and turn it on and then zip the case back up before the condensation has a chance to form.

Wordless (almost) Wednesday

Wordless (almost) Wednesday- Akulaaq

8 Dog Championship Day 1

Okie dokie...back to mushing. Today was the first day of the Kotzebue Dog Mushers Association 8 Dog Championship. This is a 2 day, one heat each day, 12 mile race, winner determined by overall time. I forgot to bring a paper and pencil so I don't have any times yet. I will get those tomorrow, but the results without time are (I think I have this right).......



1st Paul Hansen



2nd Levi Harris



3rd John "Buddoo" Gallahorn



4th John Goodwin



5th Joanne Harris

Check This Out

Behold this weeks Arctic Sounder . Those are my pictures. That is my article. I'm not much of an article writer, but that's ok. My stuff is 2 half page spreads....granted the editor is really good about printing stuff people send in, BUT STILL that's MY stuff. I'm a little peeved at a couple things she screwed up changed but they are minor. One of the captions states that this was the first race of the season in Kotzebue...it wasn't. But really, Tamar, it's no big deal, the photos look great and you used all of them and that's really cool. It is always nice to see your stuff published somewhere.

Dan Snyder Sr. Memorial Race Day 3

Today was day 3 of the Kotzebue Dog Musher's Association Dan snyder Sr. Memorial Sled Dog races. The day dawned rather overcast and dull, with the kind of white light where you can't tell the ground from the sky. By 11:30 a modest crowd of mushers, handlers and spectators were gathering down on the ice. Even with the sun hiding out it was a comfortable 7 degrees causing Fred Jackson to exclaim "Great weather for racing!"



One of Paul's dogs waiting while the rest get hitched.



This is one of Buddoo's leaders. He's a handsome dog. I have posted several pictures of him in the past.



Here's another one of Buddoo's dogs waiting to get hitched up.



Buddoo was the first across the finish (remember winners are determined by time).



Here is Paul and Cyrus coming towards the finish line. Paul had some trouble at the start of the race. The neck line on one of his dogs kept coming off and he lost about 1 minute and 20 seconds trying to get the problem fixed. This allowed Cyrus to gain some time on him.



Oh no! Paul's dogs have veered off the trail. Maybe they were trying to take a short cut to the finish line.



He had to throw his snow hook and stop his team, run to the front, grab his leaders....



....and haul everybody back on the trail.



Meanwhile, Cyrus and his team are bearing down on him as Paul runs back to his sled.



From where I was standing it looked like they were going to end up in a big mess of balled up dogs and tangled lines, but Cyrus was able to go on by as Paul picked up his snow hook and took off.



They shared the trail side by side for the next 100 yards.....



...and crossed the finish together. Even with all the trouble that he had, Paul was still able to hang on to second place in overall time.



Last into the chute is Uncle Bung.

The race trail starts of on the ice in front of Fred's house and over towards Lockard Point. From there it heads towards the Little Noatak and about 7 miles out loops around to the left and heads back towards town on the Noatak trail. The racers took off, one at a time, promptly at noon, with Virgil Naylor Sr. keeping the time and setting off one musher every two minutes. "The trail had a pretty good base", said musher Cyrus Harris, "But anywhere off the trail is soft. We had to be careful to stay on the narrow trail we had in this open terrain". Other mushers had similar reports of trail conditions, "It was pretty good", replied Bung Nelson, "Better than yesterday".

The KDMA's next race will be the 8 Dog Championship (12 mile) held March 15th and 16th. The races start at noon both days with a total purse of $5,000.

Kotzebue Dog Mushers Association Dan Snyder Sr. Memorial Sled Dog Race Results
Day 1
1. John "Buddoo" Gallahorn 57 min 49 sec
2. Paul Hansen 59 min 40 sec
3. Cyrus Harris 60 min 47 sec
4. Arvid "Bung" Nelson 68 min 49 sec
Day 2
1. John "Buddoo" Gallahorn 52 min 15 sec
2. Paul Hansen 61 min 18 sec
3. Cyrus Harris 62 min 28 sec
4 Arvid "Bung" Nelson 71 min 15 sec
Day 3
1. John "Buddoo" Gallahorn 60 min 50 sec
2. Cyrus Harris 64 min 47 sec
3. Paul Hansen 66 min 48 sec
4. Arvid "Bung" Nelson 68 min 05 sec
Overall
1. John "Buddoo" Gallahorn 179 min 54 sec
2. Paul Hansen 187 min 46 sec
3. Cyrus Harris 188 min 02 sec
4. Arvid "Bun" Nelson 208 min 09 sec

Dan Snyder Sr. Memorial Race Day 2

Here's some pics from day 2 of the races.


Here's Uncle Bung taking off.]



Cyrus coming in to the finish. This is a three day, one 16 mile heat each day race. Each musher takes off seperated by 2 minutes. The overall winner is determined by their combined time for all three days, so just because a musher physically comes in first does not mean he is first by time.



This is Cyrus and Joanne's little future musher.



The announcer is keeping us informed on everybody's time.



Here's Buddoo"s finish. He is first overall by time so far with a three second lead over Paul. We will see if he can hold that lead tomorrow. I will be back down on the ice taking pictures tomorrow. I will also have a more detailed write up of the whole race as I am sending one in for the weekly paper (maybe they will print it).

Dan Snyder Memorial Race Day 1

Am I starting to bore everyone with all the mushing photos?? Too bad. Today was day 1 of the Dan Snyder Memorial race. It is a 3 day sprint event. One race each day 16 miles, overall time wins.



I got there right as the mushers were coming in, so hopefully I got everybody right. This looks like Cyrus coming in first.



Watch out Paul, Buddoo might catch you.



Here they come...



Paul's dogs working the finish.



Time Keeper



Here comes Uncle Bung.



It was a beautiful day to be outside and watch the dogs. Day 2 is tomorrow and I will be out taking more photos.

Sheefish

The days are getting longer, the sun is getting warmer and everyone has sheefish on their mind. Now is the time of year to get out your niksiks (jigs) and ice augers and head out on the ice to hook for sheefish.

Sheefish are found only in arctic and subarctic North America and Asia, but the Northwest arctic region of Alaska is the best place to find them. This website, http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/pubs/notebook/fish/sheefish.php , has lots of information about sheefish.



This is the size hook we like to use. They seem to like shiny silver lures, but when they are in the mood they will go for just about anything you jig at the end of a line.



This is a photo I took a couple years ago of Uyaana lying next to a sheefish that he caught.



Here's a fish that he caught last year.

Another way we catch sheefish is with a net under the ice. In the fall, when the ice is thinner, a net is placed under the ice. It is done with a series of holes, poles and rope. It's a pain in the butt to first set the net, but once it's in you can use it all winter. You chip the holes open and pull the net out. When you are done you use the attached rope and pull it back under the ice from the hole on the other side.

This weekend we hung out at Uncle Louie's camp to watch his pklace and the rest of his dogs while he is off running the iditarod. While there we helped check his sheefish net out on Kobuk Lake (Kobuk Lake is the local name for Hotham Inlet on Kotzebue Sound).


Pulling the net out from under the ice.



Kaija wasn't sure what to think.



I lined a few of them up next to the shovel so that you could get an idea of how big they are. These are average size.



We fileted a few out to put in the freezer.









Here I am ready to head back to camp. Look at my left eye. I half froze it the day before and it got all swollen.

Moody Monday- Outdoorsy

Noatak River. Northwest Arctic Alaska. If your this far up the Noatak your outdoorsy.

Doggone Good Time

Today was the ladies turn to race. Not sure the name of the race or the distance, but I assume it was around 16 miles, the 2nd day of a 2 day event. There were only three mushers. It was a beautiful sunny day. The temperature was about -15F with a northwest wind at 9mph.


Here's Joanne giving her lead dogs some love while waiting for the start.



This is Uyaana's Ahna (grandmother) Lena. She said she was wishing she was out there running dogs too.



Joanne and Cyrus discuss last minute race strategy.



And there she goes.



Here's Auntie Allie getting ready for her start.



Her dogs are bouncing and ready to go.


Bye bye Auntie Allie.



Kaija watches the race while Uyaana climbs a mountain.



Margaret's son hangs on to her lead dogs while the official counts down.



They took off like a shot. Hang on Margaret!