By Alex
Netizen Aoba Peninsula (@fuwariaoba), who had just received his new DSLR camera, immediately set off on a trip to Hokkaido. While passing through Furano, he casually snapped a photo of a "silver world" on the road: whether it was the distant mountains, the houses at the foot of the hills, the road ahead, or the farmlands on both sides — all were covered in varying depths of snow, creating different shades of blue with rich layers.
Today’s Furano is on a whole other level.
— Aoba Peninsula?? (@fuwariaoba) December 31, 2020
Absolutely insane pic.twitter.com/zV7nj6Hnea
▲"The Furano I shot today came out amazingly well!"
This piece of work earned him 200,000 likes and over 34,000 reposts. Many netizens said things like "the photo doesn’t look like Japan, but more like the Swiss Alps," "a beautiful scene that makes you forget about the pandemic," and some even described the photo as having a "sacred" feel. Additionally, some netizens from Hokkaido expressed their joy at seeing someone share pictures of their hometown, as they couldn't return this year due to the pandemic.
α7Ⅲ bought it two days ago and the LCD screen already gave up on me lol!! Not something to laugh about!! pic.twitter.com/TQBRQTUj4T
— Aoba Peninsula?? (@fuwariaoba) December 27, 2020
▲"The camera screen broke on the second day. Really can't find it funny!"
Aoba Peninsula’s trip to Hokkaido also had a small mishap. Due to the cold wave hitting Hokkaido, temperatures dropped sharply, and inland Furano, due to geographical factors, experienced even lower temperatures than other coastal cities. He mentioned that the temperature in Furano on the day of shooting was -27°C (editor's note: this figure likely refers to the daily low; according to data from the Weathernews website, the daytime high that day was around -10°C). He suspects that the extreme cold caused the rear screen of his camera to stop working (no display) the day after he got it, which he found "really not funny."
▲Temperature in major Hokkaido cities on December 31, provided by the Weathernews website. Furano is located below Asahikawa and would be slightly colder.
My GoPro also gave up the ghost.
— Aoba Peninsula?? (@fuwariaoba) December 27, 2020
I think it’s a battery issue but it just dropped to 0% in an instant??? pic.twitter.com/dmXBUIuXql
▲"Even the GoPro battery suddenly went to 0%."
What did I do wrong? Teach me, oh beginner photographer me. pic.twitter.com/QyNZgthmdx
— Aoba Peninsula?? (@fuwariaoba) December 27, 2020
▲"What went wrong? Please tell this photography newbie." It seems that even if the camera can withstand the cold, it still faces other challenges.
He posted about this to netizens and received plenty of advice. Some mentioned that the general operating temperature range for digital cameras only goes down to -10°C, and exceeding that limit might mean the battery only lasts about 20 minutes (though Aoba replied that his battery didn’t have any particular issues); the rear screen might also fail to display images. Another netizen pointed out that in such cold, you shouldn’t leave the camera exposed as usual — it should be wrapped in clothing or fleece, or even have a hand warmer attached.
▲"The photo taken before the camera broke." (photo by fuwariaoba @Twitter)
▲"-10°C and still managed to see the last sunrise of 2020, amazing." (photo by fuwariaoba @Twitter)
▲"New Year's Day 2021, sunrise in Abashiri." (photo by fuwariaoba @Twitter)
▲"Today, the sky is still blue." (photo by fuwariaoba @Twitter)
▲"Waiting for the train at the station, but it never came." (photo by fuwariaoba @Twitter)
Source: Aoba Peninsula (@fuwariaoba)