I Think I Can Feel My Toes.

Friday night I was determined, once again, to film the full moon rising over Manhattan. There had been a lot of cloud cover in the past few months at moonrise and clouds covered the horizon on Thursday, as well.

But on Friday, the sky is clear and I was ready to go.  My Focalware app on my iPhone would point in the direction the moon will appear and my gear was already in the car.

Just an hour earlier, I had received an inquiry from my stock agent.

"Do you have s shot of the Chelsea Hotel at night?  I have a client in LA that needs an establisher for a TV show".

I thought for a moment and responded. "Let me check.  Is tomorrow morning alright?"

I didn't have one.  At least not yet.  But, clear weather was predicted and I already have my gear in the car.  Heck, I'll just jump in the city and shoot it.

It was cold all day and I knew the temperature was dropping rapidly.  I put on thermals and carefully layered my clothing.  I have often worked in extreme cold before, so I felt quite prepared.

My first location was a pier in nearby Hoboken.  Even though I had left plenty of time to park and prepare for my shot, there was no free parking for several blocks.  I drove to the nearest lot and parked.

With camera, tripod and camera bag, I began the 5 block walk to the Hudson.  It was only then that I felt the stiff wind coming off the river.  The wind chill made the 18-degree cold feel like zero.   The pier pushed about 80 yards into the river and there was absolutely nothing out there to obstruct the breeze.

I pulled off my glove to check the location on my phone and it would not work properly.  Apparently, all of the metal railing and benches around me on the pier were affecting the iPhones internal compass.

So, based on my earlier readings, I took my best guess and pointed across the river towards 34th Street.

Unfortunately, I was off by about 30 blocks and the moon rose beautifully, further uptown.  I quickly changed my position, but it was too late. The moon had already risen above the buildings.

One of the benefits of using a camera that writes to a card (in my case the Sony EX3), is that there is little chance of the cold affecting your media.  In the not so long ago days of tape, I would have to leave the camera on from the time I left the car, to keep it warm.   If I dare to open the camera to change tapes in this type of extreme cold, I ran the risk that the blast of cool air would cause condensation to form on the tape drum, which would then, at the worst, stick to your tape and at the best, shut down the camera and set off the dew indicator light.  With solid state, no such problem.


I stayed long enough to film the moon rising over the city and a few static night shots with the last glow of the western sky reflecting off the buildings.  I was done.

I have photographed glaciers in Alaska and filmed on the ice in the frozen arctic, but neither seemed as cold as I was feeling at this moment.  It was biting a my face and slowly penetrating my gloves.  I picked up my gear and headed back to the garage.

My first inclination was to high tail it home, but I had made a commitment to deliver the hotel shot, so, after thawing my hands in the car for a few minutes, I headed into Manhattan.

Fortunately, parking was accessible and I was able to leave my car on 24th Street, only one block away from the hotel.  Perhaps I was more used to the cold at this point, but the city felt much warmer, or at least there was not as much wind as on the river.

Fortunately, other than a few curious onlookers and the danger of dodging taxis while standing near the outside edge of parked cars, I was able to get the hotel shots without incident.

24 hours later and I think I can feel my toes again.

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