Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and P2 HD

Aram Bauman said:
So.. you are saying that the dogs go to the bathroom while they are running?
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The advice I was given was "keep your mouth closed when the dog teams go by." Infer from that what you will. :evil:

I don't really see how cheating is going to be possible, they have waystations all over the place and at every station you're required to check in your whole team of dogs and the veterinarians swarm over them at every checkpoint to ensure their health. It's not like you start at Anchorage and 9 days later show up at Nome, there are lots of checkpoints along the way. It's really very well run, and the whole organization is flat-out impressive.
 
Yea what was it like...?
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Okay, so tonight I got a field update from Bernie Mitchell, of Silver Platter Productions. www.silverplatterproductions.com He's an independent producer/cameraman, one of two guys that is working on a "How The Iditarod Was Shot" documentary for Panasonic who's actually on the trail, in the trenches, following the Iditarod cameramen all the way to Nome. Here's some "local flavor" of what it's like out there:

Things are going well, but the conditions are pretty tough. I thought I would update you on what I am finding shooting under these conditions. It is much, much different than shooting in Anchorage. In spite of the difficult conditions, we are getting some good footage. Logistics (dressing, getting the gear around) are very difficult. Usually, you have to walk a distance to where you need to be to get the shots. This in itself is a major undertaking. It is COLD, walking on deep snow is tiring and slipping on ice is always a possibility. I was out shooting yesterday down on the trail and I walked across some ice and started slipping. I looked for a snow bank to throw the camera into if I fell. Figured it would be better than slamming the camera on the ice. Fortunately, I didn't fall, but these are the thiings that you have to consider when you are on the trail. The wind is your worst enemy. It cuts thru everything. No matter what your layering. It is brutal.

Some comments from the trail:
It is COLD. This morning it was -20 and that was before wind chill, so I am guessing -35 or-40. It is hard to think straight and function well.
McGrath is a small town (300 people) and the check point is basically deserted until a musher comes in (which we have shot). Then the vets check the dogs (we shot that), we have interviewed some mushers, as well. Then the mushers go into the musher's bunkhouse (off limits) and everyone else vanishes. We have shot dogs sleeping in snow on the straw. We hang around until the cold saps us and then go in and get warm and then go out and do again.

The HVX200's seem to be working just fine. Without the PortaBrace mitten bag the metal of the camera gets so cold it comes right thru my gloves freezing my fingers (even with hand warmers in my gloves. . And you have to take your gloves off to adjust settings. Wearing a balacava face mask, goggles or glasses and hat or parka hood, I am finding that the goggles and/or glasses fog up quickly, making it difficult to see. So, then I pull them off to shoot, but this limits the time I can shoot, it is so COLD.
With the PortaBrace mitten on, the camera stays warmer to touch, but it is almost impossible to operate. You have to look thru the small viewfinder and holding the camera is awkward and you can forget about making any adjustments, like iris or other settings. You pretty much have to shoot just all auto.

The Cabella's gear is great and keeps me warm. I could not have survived without it. But is a bit of chore to take on and off, and interestingly when you come in from the cold to a hub, you have to immediately start shredding layers. The boots are great, my feet have not gotten cold and the parka works good, although the kangaroo pocket is awkward, smaller multiple pockets would have been better in the field. The Cabella gloves are great for walking around, but you can't operate a camera with them on.

CR and Art. Prepare for much colder conditions than Anchorage! Having the house as a base should help a lot, but the cold will really sap your energy very fast.

It's fun, just COLD. Having thawed out, we are off to the checkpoint once again.
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Hi,

There are some additional videos and photos from Nome, where badwidth for upload is limited. These are a little more fun. ;-)

The first musher should come over the finish line this evening. Sort of a cool back story on him. Lance Mackey's father and brother both won the Iditarod wearing bib #13. Lance is wearing Bib #13 this year and it is the 13th of March. Lance, should he win, will be the first to have ever won the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod in the same year.

Anyhow the P2 has performed flawlessly in the cold. We bought the Polar mits for all the cameras but the cameramen chose to keep the cameras exposed. They we in tents for the last 5 days and never missed a shot.

More later,

jan
 
16GB.jpg

nice.. screen grab from panasonic broadcast
 
Well that 16GB card will be nice once it is here, but we used 8GBs on the Iditarod Trail. Actually can hardly wait for NAB an d all the cool announcements.

Best,

Jan
 
Jan,

Congratulations on what looks like a real testament to the P2 workflow and reliability. I am sure that you have appreciated being able to get away from the office for a while. I am not so sure how you ever convinced Barry to come along for the ride, we struggled to get him out of the car on a pristine winter's day in a foot of snow in the South Island! Always muttering something about coming from the desert under his breath. Maybe the chance to play with the HPX500 was just too tempting. I look forward to seeing some real pics at NAB - keep up the good work.
 
Yeah, but up there we had big fancy parkas! Down in NZ it was just cold & snow and regular street clothes... :thumbsup:

Seems like I'm chasing winter all over the place; just as it gets nice here, I go to Alaska, and then I'm headed back to Australia in July (which, of course, is the dead of winter down there...)

I didn't even know there was going to be an HPX500 up there until Jan showed up with it! :)
 
"When it comes to breakfast, the chicken is involved. The pig is committed." Thats a great one.


I have experienced cold like that before but not for days and days outside. In 2004 I was up in my home state of NH and with the wind chiill it was -60. So cold that the ski resort was open and free for anyone crazy enough to go.. In NH the strongest wind and coldest temp on the planet were recorded at the top of Mt. Washington... Burr.. glad to be in FL now.


Good reading all and can't wait to see the high rez vids... And find out about the announcements at NAB that Jan mentioned.... cool indeed
 
Barry_Green said:
Yeah, but up there we had big fancy parkas! Down in NZ it was just cold & snow and regular street clothes... :thumbsup:
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Yeah, we offered you an attractive wooly jumper but you just looked at us kinda strange :eek:

Translation (NZ) Jumper = (US) Sweater
 
Jan, where can I get one of those great Panasonic P2 HD jackets? Here where I live in Canada its normal to have winter temps between -20 to -35. That jacket looked warm... and not a bad way to shamelessly plug Panny I might add...!!!

Thats what you need... a Panawear store. "Pimp out your camera AND your wardrobe!"

:thumbsup:
 
Rick Haywood said:
Yeah, we offered you an attractive wooly jumper but you just looked at us kinda strange :eek:

Translation (NZ) Jumper = (US) Sweater
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Yeah but translation (US) Wooly = Sheep.
So no wonder Barry looked at you strange, after being in Australia and hearing stories about you Kiwi's, he thought you were offering him a jumping sheep, that I guess didn't look that attractive to him:happy:
 
The parkas were from Cabella's, the official sponsor of the Iditarod. I think Jan hand-sewed the logo on the back so there are very few of 'em in existence. :thumbsup:
 
I didn't hand sew the Logos on the Jackets, the nice folks at Cabella's did. They did look warm. I didn't get one. Darn. I could use one this weekend in NYC. The weather here is turning into a real April Fools joke.

I did hear one funny story about a camera that was frozen solid, the camera had not been turned on in about 36 hours. This was one of the guys that had both a 200 and a 2000. I don't know which one was frozen. So he turns it on and while the lights come on, no images are showing. So he decides to just leave it on. Within about a 1/2 hour all is working fine. It was -40 and the camera was frozen al the way through. So from this he learned at least on the big cameras to leave them in standby, drain on the battery is much less and it doesn't get too cold to operate.

Forgot to mention that while they all had these really nice camera gloves that would have kept the cameras warm, everyone ran without them.

Best,

Jan
 
Where the parkas Black by any chance?

I saw someone with a HVX with a french flag on it shooting handheld at the finish line in Nome on the news last night. That you Barry?

Whoever it was; nice running dive to kneeling for the shot. :)

- Mikko
 
I just saw the last 5 minutes or so of a show on the VS network. Coverage of the 2007 Iditarod. Footage out in the field. And saw someone in the crowd in Nome as the winner came across wearing a big parka with P2HD on the back.

Looked pretty cool. Heli footage. Footage on the ground, on the sleds, etc.

Jason
 
I'll probably start a war here by saying this:

but as cool as it was for Panasonic to cover the dogsled races, it's also awful how they torture those dogs. I read in a local newspaper that they race over 1000 miles and many of the dogs develop stomach ulcers and/or lung damage. Many also die.

But yeah the video footage of the races is cool.
 
Hi,

You talk about what happens because of individuals and not because of the racce. A great many dogs do not die and a great many dogs do not develop those conditions. The Iditarod has a zero tolerance for any crueltry to the animals and if that was not true then Panasonic would not be there. Three dogs died this year and all are being investigated. Keep in mind that more dogs die in the grey hound tracks or just being a mutt in NYC on any given day.

When the race has just barely started, Doug Swingly crashed leaving him with 2 broken ribs. They ari-evaced his dougs first. When Lance Mackey crossed the finish line, he spent 10 minutes kissing his dogs before he kissed his wife.

I did not see, nor did my staff see the crueltry you suggest. However you cannot be everywhere. There was one racer, Ramy Brooks that was disqualified the minute that the allegations could be substantiated, that he had hit his dogs.
This is one person out of the 82 teams that started.

I hope this helps.

Best,

jan
 
Torture? I was there, I saw how they treat those dogs -- they treat 'em like world class athletes. Those dogs live to run. There's no whips, there's no torture, just an army of veterinarians who make absolutely sure that those dogs are perfectly cared for. At every checkpoint the dogs are examined, and if any are showing any ill effects they're immediately cut from the team. The "mushers" are required to keep a diary with them that shows every bit of examination and test results that the dogs had, and if they skip an exam or something they're thrown out of the race and banned.

Yes the dogs run 1100 miles. Yes that seems outrageous to us to even comprehend. But you look at 'em, and it's easy to see that they can't imagine doing anything else. They live for that. Their hearts are about 3x larger than the average canine's, because they're made for this.

If that Ramy guy hit his dogs, well, there are jerks everywhere, sure. And I imagine the other 86 mushers will probably get together and beat the hell out of him, he'll stand about as much chance on the sled-dog circuit as a pedophile does in a maximum-security prison.

But to besmirch the reputation of an organization that goes out of its way to ensure that its "canine athletes" are the most cared-for athletes in the world, well, that's just not fair nor right.
 
Exactly Barry.

There are jerks in every sport or organization that can ruin reputations for everyone. Its best to examine the source of the information (good or bad) and get educated before forming an opinion. Especially when information comes from special interest groups and newspapers. There is very little reporting that is done anymore which fairly represents "fair and balanced". Everyone these days has an agenda of some kind.
 
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