Pixiq

It was only after the helicopter had lifted off from the pack ice and I looked back at the white ice floes separated by the dark leads of water did I appreciate just how precarious my photo shoot with harp seals pup had been. Before we boarded the chopper on the Magdalen Islands to fly out to the ice in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence, we had to don a bright orange survival suit. However, I knew if I did end up in the freezing water, it would only prolong my life for a matter of minutes. We were also issued with a pole to prod the ice to test the thickness, but I decided to leave it behind and use my tripod instead.

On a clear day, you can spot the dark-skinned adults from the air, whereas the smaller white cubs tend to blend in with the snow and ice. One morning we landed after an overnight blizzard and I failed to see any cubs – until a mound of snow moved to reveal an eye peering out of a snow-encrusted body.

The prime aim of many visitors' is to pose cuddling a seal pup, but I preferred to use the precious moments on the ice taking as many different shots as possible, because I knew if we were faced with a whiteout the next day there would be no flights. Newborn cubs are yellow (known as yellowcoats) and not very attractive, but a few days feeding on the rich milk supplied by the mother they soon become plump whitecoats. As a cub lies on the ice the warmth from its body melts the ice to form an ice cradle hollow. The cubs don't do a lot except lie there and roll over but they do have the cutest black eyes that melt your heart.

I was eager to get eyeball-to-eyeball shots of the cubs, low angle verticals of a cub with a blue sky behind for a possible cover and a mother nursing her cub. Most of all I wanted to get the kiss of recognition when the mother emerges from an open hole in the ice to great her anxious cub waiting beside the hole.

What to wear

Working in cold conditions (the wind chill factor increases with strong winds) is much harder than being driven around on an African safari; although if you dress in layers you can add more or take some off as the temperature fluctuates. Apart from maintaining a warm body, it is vital to keep your feet and hands warm, so chemical hand and foot warmers are a must. Wearing Arctic boots made by Sorel or North Face guaranteed down to at least – 4ºF (–20ºC) are essential. I wear 2-3 pairs of gloves. Next to the skin is a thin silk pair (not as glamorous as they sound, as they were bought from a Chinese supermarket), then a pair of waterproof gloves/mitts with separate thumb and index finger.  When walking over the ice I also wear a pair of thick ski gloves that are quite impractical for taking pictures. On my head I wear a padded hat with ear flaps on top of a balaclava.

Cold is death to batteries, so you need to bring at least one, if not two, spares for both camera and flash that can be kept warm in pockets.

How to meter

White pups lying on white ice and snow are a prime example of a high key subject.  You have several options for getting a correct exposure.

1)     Use a hand-held light meter to take an incident light reading of the light falling on the ice and the pup, by pointing the meter towards the camera with the white diffusion cone in place. You then need to set the exposure manually using the combination of shutter speed and aperture given on the light meter, otherwise it will revert back to the in-camera reading and result in gray ice and pups.

 2)     If the sun is shining, look for a shadow area cast by a large piece of uplifted ice and spot meter off the shadow (my preferred method). Either select the exposure manually or use the AE lock to hold that exposure for just one shot. If you want to repeat it you have to use the AE lock again.

3)     Use a gray card or any average toned object (another method I use) to manually meter the light. It does not have to be placed right beside the pup, but you do have to point the camera in the same direction as you want to take the image. Either set the exposure manually or use the AE lock.

4)     To over-ride the camera reading, use the exposure compensation (need to use a + value to increase the exposure to compensate for the gray snow and pup). Take a shot, check the monitor and make any further adjustments necessary.  I don’ t use this because I find it is too easy to forget to reset the exposure compensation back to 0.

Time 

Last week of February to mid-March, although if there is no pack ice on which to haul out, the pregnant females will delay giving birth. Several companies offer trips to the Magdalen Islands, but you need to check how many helicopter flights are included. Sometimes it is only one and you need 2-3 to allow for a bad weather day when no flights take place.