Tips for Shooting in Antarctica...

one of my closest friends is taking a short sabbatical and is going to be working with a research team in antarctica researching the penguins. she is leaving in a few weeks and will be staying for a month to six weeks. she is a beginner when it comes to photography and i would really appreciate any and all tips that i can share with her to help her take great photos while she is there. i have already mentioned that she needs extra batteries and to keep them close to her body for longer life. i've also suggested that she might need a cpl but am curious what you guys/gals think about that.

other than gear, where i could really use some guidance is on how to get the best results in terms of exposure, etc...she has a canon low end dslr with i think the basic zoom lenses (18-55, 55-200). she won't get other gear (i've told her to bring lots of storage), but any and all tips on technique would be much appreciated. thanks!

Very Interesting ...
I would love to do the same trip.

It will be Spring to Summer for her trip {no 100 degree below nights w 100 MPH winds}.
A CPL is good to have.
So is backup in cameras, battery, flash cards.
Equipment failures are often there - even in "good" weather.
A beginner in photo may have challenges.
Look up the NG articles on shooting in Antarctica.
If you want to challenge her ...
tell her to take up Scuba and do underwater stills or video
of Penguins hunting for food.

I sincerely doubt that she will be the only one there with a dslr. Probably the best thing she could do is talk to the other camera users there and get their input.

Bring a warm jacket?

we've been helping her on her sock choices!! i've been looking up some articles..so far the consensus seems to be to take precautions against condensation when going from indoors to outdoors, keep your batteries (and bring extras) warm and camera as well, and to generally bump exposure up to compensate for all the snow and the meter being 'fooled'...unfortunate​ly she won't be able to practice before she goes (she's in london).

She can practice shooting a white towel in an extremely bright room. It will fool the meter that way too.

For shots with lots of snow I set my EC to +1.5 or +2. That usually gets me close.

-js

With a month to six weeks down there to practice, I think she'll figure it all out. Bring a laptop with lots of HD space!

they don't want her to bring a laptop so she is probably going to bring a ton of cf and flash drive storage instead. i have to ask her about that...meaning how will she get her images from camera to whatever storage medium she wants to use. it is a research trip not a tourist trip so they want to keep the hardware to a minimum.

not sure if this was said or not but bring a plastic bag to put your camera in so it doesn't fog up your lens and such. When I was in the Artic I ran into that problem and ended up messing up some shots I would have liked. Also when she goes back into a heated area she needs to completely break down her camera. she needs to open up as much of the camera as she can so that when the heat hits the camera it'll allow the moisture to dry up.

Kronie wrote in post #10957042
Bring a warm jacket?

and don't eat yellow snow

philwillmedia wrote in post #10962138
and don't eat yellow snow

check...