It was a bitterly cold one yesterday. Temperatures were in the teens when I left my apt. for the 1+ hour drive deep up into Ulster County. 
Spent about an hour this morning on the frozen Ashokan Reservoir near Woodstock, NY one of the main reservoirs here in the Hudson Valley that feeds into the NYC water supply system. Today it was to witness a NYC DEP (Dept. of Environmental Protection) police strategic patrol unit during an ice-rescue training session on the reservoir. The officers, their superiors and our reporter gathered onshore were all encouraging as I donned a buoyant vest and clip-on traction devices over my work boots. The team of rescue officers in their buoyancy suits were agreeable when I suggested that the better images (and video) of them going through their rescue routines would look much better if I could get on the ice and sort of look back at at them, as the scene was horribly back-lit in the bright sun. No way could I have made anything nearly as good with the white snow on the far shoreline and the ice acting as a serious reflector to the mid-morning sun – particularly when viewed from the shoreline. One I was accompanied out on the ice, which I was told was 10″ thick, the rescue officers ran through a few scenarios and I had enough images and a few video clips in ten minutes. Much to the relief of the big-wigs onshore. I remember the crew telling our reporter that the water temperature was 38ºF, and a victim would become lethargic in 2 minutes, and would expire in 10 minutes under such extreme conditions. Brrrrr….!!! ~cg.
DEP Police officer Chuck Chapman (left) portrays a victim as fellow officer Paul Dwon (right) crawls on the ice to rescue him during an ice rescue training session by the DEP Police on the Ashokan Reservoir in Shokan, NY on Thursday, March 3, 2011. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
DEP Police officer Chuck Chapman uses hand ice picks to pull himself out of the frozen Ashokan Reservoir during an ice rescue training session by the DEP Police on the Ashokan Reservoir in Shokan, NY on Thursday, March 3, 2011. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
Chet Gordon resides in the lower Hudson Valley region of New York. A photojournalist for more than 25 years, he recently worked as Westchester Magazine's first photo editor, and previously was a staff photographer at four NYC metro area newspapers. He was also a photo editor at the NY Daily News for 5 years. His work has appeared in The New York Times, International Herald-Tribune, USA Today, MailOnline (UK), Army Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Popular Photography magazines, among others. He is a career member of the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA), and a former board member of the NY Press Photographer’s Association (NYPPA). He served honorably as a U.S. Marine in the mid-1980's, including 2+ years stationed on Okinawa, Japan, and throughout Southeast Asia. A longtime volunteer and travel enthusiast, he accompanies several humanitarian aid clients on their international disaster relief and medical missions. Since 1997, he's worked in several African countries, the Middle East, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, as well as Afghanistan, Haiti, the Russian Federation, and Thailand. He routinely mentors young photographers looking to break into the industry and vacations in Bermuda and Kenya.
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