Rrrright! I promised a series about driving Pentax KP into a state where it could no longer be operated due to frozen controls and lens. For some reason it took two years before I finally started going through the photos shot over the period of one week in absolutely stunning conditions in Finnish Lapland in 2018. I shall write an article about this later when I am done with all the photos I would like to share.

To demonstrate the qualities of light available at this unique location, I will start with kind of harsh afternoon light which quickly turns into dramatic spectacle which then clears up when light starts to fade.

Rising front of snow and harsh wind from the east at the background:


Still blindingly bright light at 180 degrees


The snowfront rises up and starts covering direct sunlight


Magic mushrooms in the snowstorm lit by sunlight from the west


Blinding light straight into sun. Note the flare on foreground coming from my friend's Nikkor 24-70 front lens!!!


And the snowing is over but remaining clouds create some dramatic vistas, particularly when shot using a polarizer


Frozen lens surface is not very effective against bright light


And the day starts slowly fading towards the night






This is the first collection of photos from total of five which I will be posting.

[MJKoski]

Oh yes, there are quite deep pits under the trees and I have tumbled into them many times. Most of the time it happens when you try to compose from some specific angle and back off a bit on snowshoes not realizing there is a pothole behind you Sometimes I have needed help to get up from there with all my gear. Always have a friend nearby.

[Heinrich Lohmann]

This is just a mind-blowing series, thank you for posting them.

[MJKoski]

Thanks Heinrich. Here are few behind the scenes -photos. First one is from January 2020:



Second one from the day my snowshoes failed (and KP landed in the snow...)



Why small mirrorless cameras are pure fail in such conditions:



If you take your gloves off few times too many, you practically shorten your cold resistance by few hours and that's it.

[dbs]

Just Superb



Dave

[volley]

What an amazing series! Great work, and a very dedicated photographer!

[Reddevil_sen]

Some of the best snow shots i ve seen... great work.. please keep posting more.. and good to see KP going through this and still working fine.. tells something about the build..

[RobG]

what a fantastic series! I gather that this part of Finland must have similar conditions to Mount Zao in Japan. The forest at Zao ends up with the trees covered in a similar way, and they call them "snow monsters". I love the light in your photos. Unfortunately I couldn't get good photos of the snow monsters in Zao because there was a gale blowing over the mountain and I could barely stand up, let alone take photos!


Snow Monsters by RobGeraghty, on Flickr

[MJKoski]

Thank you! And yes RobG, those seem to be the exact conditions for growing up a snow monster. Maybe there is even more depth in the snow :O Certainly looks that way.