I must admit, I hadn’t planned on doing a blog post for the Herring Cove Polar Bear Dip but after looking through my photos, I felt compelled.  I had never been to a polar bear dip before today, nor had I ever contemplated participating in one, but a friend of mine was jumping and I just needed to see his reaction so I came out to support him and his crew of insane friends and family.  You see, my friend John is getting married on Saturday to the love of his life and he’s British, so of course he’s got a bunch of people here in Nova Scotia for the wedding.  I don’t know how he did it, but he managed to convince a number of the wedding party and an uncle to jump into frigid water with the air being 10 degrees below zero, -25 with the windchill (or so I’m told).

John walked down into the water wearing a penguin costume and despite my best efforts, he refused to jump in wearing it.  I later told him that if he jumps in it next year, I’ll get the same costume and jump in as well (first regret of 2014 and only hours into the damn thing) but that’s a story for another day.  All I know is I had a hell of a time just watching people jump in and hear their reactions which ranged from “that was exhilarating” to “that was $%#&’n stupid”.  I got some good pictures and well, I like sharing.  As an FYI, I was shooting people jumping from the right side of the pier 99% of the time and I will fully admit to using the spray and pray method with my camera held high over my head in the hopes of getting a good shot, so there were a lot out of focus shots, maybe next time I will bring a step ladder.

I fully intend to include a couple of the photos of the wedding party in their wedding blog post which will inevitably be up soon and linked here, and feel free to look at that when it’s up, and also to check out the SALE I’m having on wedding photography which can be found HERE.

The event was in support of FEED NOVA SCOTIA, so check out the link and make a donation for a good cause.  It’s also worth recognizing the organizers and Fire Department who assisted nearly every jumper in one way or another, be it with support getting onto the ledge, or a hand up from the ladder out of the water, what one person referred to as “hands of angels” as she reached the top.  Here are some of the photos;

Enjoy!!!

www.DustinHallPhotography.ca

UPDATE: If you would like to purchase any photos from the blog post, or to see more, check out the gallery on my sports photography site Red Rabbit Sports Photography.  The site is still in its infancy and has not really launched yet, but I got it going well enough for this.  The bulk of any purchase made will be donated to Feed Nova Scotia.