Canadian finds new meaning to the term ‘freeze frame’

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When the going gets cold, Alberta’s Joe Chowaniec gets outside.

The Edmonton resident is Executive Director of the Environmental Services Association of Alberta and also a professional photographer with two bestselling books – Abandoned Alberta and Abandoned Alberta II – to his name.

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The books collect haunting images of dilapidated barns and rusty old automobiles under broad prairie skies. But recently Chowaniec was noticed for a series of more playful images – photos and videos of household objects frozen solid in the extreme cold temperatures that gripped the region for several days.

“Not out for long but out having fun,” is how he describes his forays into the cold. “The first day I went out to Elk Island, ’cause I always do that when it gets extremely cold, to get photos of the bison all frosty.”

But after his visit to the nearby National Park for images of snow-covered ruminants, Chowaniec decided to see what else the weather could provide in the way of photographic inspiration.

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First up, a soap bubble that goes from liquid to solid in a few seconds as ice crystals bloom across its surface. Then the old boiling-water-toss, captured in slow motion on a day when the wind chill was -43 C.

He then started getting more creative. Day three shows a bowl of noodles and a pair of chopsticks frozen in the midst of grabbing a mouthful. Day four: An egg suspended above a pan, its dripping yolk a stalactite. And finally a roll of toilet paper, held aloft by a quickly frozen waterfall of unfurled sheets.

He has no plans to publish his images, meaning Abandoned Alberta probably won’t be joined on bookshelves by Frozen Alberta.

“I don’t know if I could freeze enough stuff,” he says. “It would be a small book.”

But why do it at all, when many people are happy to just stay indoors? “Something fun to do,” he says simply. “People have got to get out and enjoy this and have fun with it. We’re Canadians. We might as well embrace it. It’s part of what we are. Winter is us!”

Besides, he adds, the kind of extreme temperatures associated with the recent polar vortex don’t generally last. “We only get it for six or seven days a year,” he says.

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Indeed, when the National Post reached out to Chowaniec, he pointed out that a how-to video he recently posted to his social media didn’t really work so well because the temperatures had already climbed to minus 25.

And cold weather is relative. After a few days of temperatures in the minus 40s with wind chill: “Honestly, 20 below feels like summer!”

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