Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge — January 1st, 2026

When fellow 35mmc contributor David Pauley suggested a photo outing to shoot the Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge on New Year’s morning, I didn’t hesitate for a second.  We’ve become ‘real life’ friends since meeting in the comment section of 35mmc, in part because we are neighbors in Brooklyn, NY, in part because we both grew up in Western Pennsylvania around the same time, but most of all because of our enthusiasm for shooting film still photography on vintage cameras.  Oh, and also he’s a great guy!

It was a bit intimidating to go out shooting with a photographer I admire so much and thinking about how much better his photos were probably gonna look than mine, not to mention his stellar writing on 35mmc.  On the way out to Coney Island, my mind was swirling over the right technical set up for such a dynamic/borderline chaotic event, not to mention having been up to about 2:30 am the night before ringing in 2026 with friends.  I had already settled on the Leica M as the right camera for the day.  With love, if felt a little dangerous to attempt using the the Hasselblad system in cold, frigid, sandy and wet conditions. I worried about fiddling with the gear more than shooting due to trying to keep it free of sand and water while trying to reload and swap film backs & lenses.  I figured if the M3 could handle the jungles of Vietnam, it was probably gonna be fine on a wintry beach in New York…

When I picked him up, David had two Rolleiflexes, his stalwart 80mm Planar 2.8 and a Tele-Rollei 135mm.  I thought it would be interesting to see how we both covered the same event using our respective formats and photographer’s eyes & brains.  After some deliberation and dithering right up to the Coney Island Aquarium parking lot, I decided to go with two M3’s, one color,  one black & white, and three lenses to share between them — a 50mm, 35mm and 21mm.  I decided I would start wide for some zone-focusing.  On the b&w body, I went with the 1957 21mm f4 Super Angulon, and I mounted the 1960 35mm Summaron f2.8 on the color body.  

As we made our way to the beach, I began to get a sense of the scale of the occasion.  It was big, and there were a lot of people with other plans for the day than swimming in the frigid (-3C) weather.

My early shots were ‘testing the waters.’ Not literally, like the intrepid swimmers, but trying to get a sense of the event and how and where to shoot.  Conditions were not my favorite.  The sun was high & hard and backlighting the primary angle on the event, looking into the water from the beach.

The Super Angulon has a tendency to flare with strong backlight and also has interesting ‘sunstars’ due to its unusual 9 bladed aperture.  Here it seems to have a bit of both including an interesting rectangular flare.  I was trying out Svema Foto 100, a Ukrainian b&w film.

I had Cinestill 400 D in the color body.  Cinestill can have some interesting auras and highlights around strong light sources due to it’s lack of an anti-halation layer.  I like it on some shots with artificial light, but didn’t love it here with red auras where the sun is hitting the water. Chalk that up to a ‘learning experience.’

It was much easier to shoot away from the water and I was enjoying zone focusing with the 35mm, which feels like a pretty useful focal length for an event like this — wide enough to capture some of the scope of the event and keep up with the action of people on the move, but tight enough to feel some of the detail on individual people without getting in their way as they hurried in and out of the water.

After rushing a lot of my early shots chasing the action, I started slowing down and looking for moments and people that might have some personality…

After a handful of shots with the 21mm in b&w, I switched to my ‘go to’ 50mm, the1949 Summitar f2.

I was immediately feeling better and more ‘connected’ to the image in the finder on the 50mm, which is more or less my ‘native’ focal length.  It felt almost like putting on a pair of glasses with the correct prescription, despite the fact that it was more challenging in terms of focus, due both to the narrower depth of field and the difficulties of seeing the rangefinder patch at certain angles in that strong light.

I started edging closer and closer to the surf to try to get out past all of the other photographers to shoot the people brave enough to get in the water.  This was also a better camera position in terms of lighting…

I was settling into an approach in terms of how to shoot the event, which was more of ‘documentary’ style, looking for interesting characters and moments.   Certain people would catch my eye…

… and I would follow them for a couple of shots.

There were all kinds of colorful characters out there enjoying being part of the spectacle, and I would bounce from one to the next.

While it was a bit cumbersome to carry the two bodies, I was happy with the decision that allowed me to ‘code-switch’ between color and black & white as the mood struck me.

… sometimes from one shot to the next.

A lot of my shots were trying to capture the scope, action and energy of the event, some better than others.  I liked this disciplined group of people in crocheted balaclava’s cutting through the crowd in formation.

David and I would run into each other from time to time on the beach, but we didn’t pause to chat much because things were moving quickly in a target rich environment.

I’m sure we hit some of the same people, and I clocked him shooting this man with the flag out of my peripheral vision.

I couldn’t resist grabbing a shot of my own.  Despite the cold, the Plungers tended to be pretty patient with getting their photo taken, especially the ones who were in costumes.

Is it me, or do US flags always look amazing in b&w?

When I changed rolls on the color body, I went with Portra 400, probably a better overall choice for the location and conditions…

The event draws New Yorkers and visitors from many parts of the world, including these Peruvian women in sheep head masks.

After the Svema Foto 100, I loaded a roll of Derev Pan 200, another interesting b&w stock, possibly with a little more nuance in the midrange tones and a bit more grain.

It was pretty much impossible to avoid other photographers in my shots, so I didn’t worry about it and framed for whatever I was interested in with the ubiquitous photographers as part of the scene.  I got a little of the icy water in one of my boots on that one, but I like the shot.

Some of the other shooters were equipped to go wading out into the surf.

Others, like me, stayed in the shallow end.

My favorite fellow photographer was a very soft spoken gentleman with a 16mm Bolex motion picture camera.

As the day went on, more and more I was shooting little ‘sequences’ more than single images.

This shot of the woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty emerging from the water might be one of my personal favorites on the day — it  feels like it’s combining myths like Botticelli’s Venus and America welcoming immigrants from all over the world.

As she slowly but surely made her way to the beach, she drew a small crowd of photographers.  I heard one of them say, “This is the shot!”

David texted me that he was back up on the boardwalk, having has his fill of the cold for the day.  People were still arriving as I made my way up the beach, including this group in Shriners kit.  I liked their maroon velour robes, and coveted their fezzes.

On a side note, I think I might be falling back in love with the Summaron 35mm f2.8 after using a Voigtlander 28mm as my ‘first call’ wide angle for most of 2025.  Key for me was picking up an external 35mm viewfinder so I don’t have to frame through those goggles on the M3 that are pretty accurate optically, but dim the finder a little more than would be ideal.  I think the combination of the Summaron 35mm and Portra 400 is quite rich and it also looks great in monochrome.

Up on the boardwalk, a party was getting started, including a couple of women who were managing to make frilly bathing caps something of a fashion accessory, dancing away to Talking Heads’ Born Under Punches (And the Heat Goes On) certainly an ironic song choice for the day.

David and I decided to warm up over some coffee and compared notes on our experiences on the beach.  I think his biggest frustration was frequent reloading with 12 exposures per roll.  Mine was my anxiety about exposure with major light changes depending on camera direction and focus on the 50mm with so much motion as people hurried in and out of the water.  But despite our angst, we could put it aside pending results from the lab/darkroom, and congratulated ourselves for having braved the elements and the ‘early’ hour and counted the expedition a smashing, shivering success!

As my last shot of the day, I grabbed a portrait of David with his Rolleiflex collection in front of the coffee shop.

FEATURED IMAGE:  POLAR PLUNGE MASCOT & PLUNGING ANGEL, Leica M3, Leitz Summitar 50mm f2, Svema Foto 100

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