Outdoor Tips

Banerjee’s Photo Gear
• Cameras: Medium format Mamiya 645 ProTL for photographing landscapes, 35mm Nikon F4S and FM2 when shooting during the winter, and Nikon F5 during the summer months. For summer wildlife and bird photography he used a Canon EOS-3
with a 600mm f/4.
• Film: Kodak E100VS during the winter, Fujichrome Provia 100F during the summer, and for photographing northern lights, he used Fujichrome Provia 400F, pushed one stop.
• Tripod: Gitzo 340.
• Filters: Warming 81A or Warming 81A circular polarizing filter to warm up the deep blue cast on landscapes during the winter. Occasionally used a circular polarizing filter during the summer.
• Flash: Nikon SB-28 for fill flash when photographing people (he also used the Nikon flash with his Mamiya 645).
• Lenses: Mamiya 22mm, 35mm, 45mm, 80mm, 150mm, and 500mm. Used Nikon lenses ranging from 17mm–500mm. Occasionally, he used a 1.4x teleconverter.

Muskoxen have an amazing coat that helps them survive in -20° temperatures. Banerjee captured them here among the icefog.

Cold-Weather Survival Gear
“If I am not warm enough in the field, the photography becomes meaningless,” Banerjee stated in his book. He usually wore a heavy down parka and down pants with 800-weight goose down and a sturdy lining. The hood had a ruff made of wolf fur, which is commonly worn throughout the Arctic to protect one’s face during blizzard conditions.

He also wore a balaclava and liner gloves along with a hat. Over his liner gloves he wore sheepskin mittens filled with loose musk ox wool. He notes that wearing gloves was cumbersome, but he never took them off when using his camera because touching metal surfaces with bare fingers in -40° weather would result in frostbite.

Banjerjee found interesting plants to photograph, like this Lousewort growing out of the Arctic ice.

Banerjee used an extreme-weather down sleeping bag rated at -70° and slept in an Arctic Oven tent. He used interchangeable battery holders to keep his camera batteries warm, and kept two extra battery holders inside his parka.

Banerjee quit his job, cashed in his life savings and went to Alaska to document the native people, the land and the wildlife. In this placid scene, he photographed the last days of autumn before the onset of winter.

More Online
To see more of Subhanker Banerjee’s work and to learn more about his excursion to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, visit his website at: www.wwbphoto.com.