Christmas Eve in an Ice Castle

Canada’s First Ice Castle in Edmonton from Ryan Jackson on Vimeo.

Canada’s First Ice Castle in Edmonton takes shape in Hawrelak Park on December 24. 2016. Video by Ryan Jackson, Edmonton Journal. Shot with a Canon 1Dx and 24mm f1.4L lens on a Kessler Pocket Dolly with the Second Shooter motion control system.

I worked the night shift on Christmas Eve for the Edmonton Journal. It’s typically pretty slow on Christmas Eve so I took the opportunity to make a cool video of the Ice Castle being constructed in Hawrelak Park. It was also a chance to use my new Kessler Second Shooter system which allowed me to get super smooth programable shots. There’s no way I could have made such smooth shots hand held. Especially while freezing my butt off!

Canon 1Dx with a Canon 24mm f1.4L lens on a Kessler Pocket Dolly with the Second Shooter motion control system.

The people who were building the ice castle provided me with slip on spikes for my boots which saved me from slipping and falling.

Here is the ice castle being constructed on Dec. 8, 2015. You can learn more about it from another video I made here.

Canada’s first ice castle nears completion in Hawrelak Park in Edmonton on December 23, 2015. The 27,000-tonne, 4,000 square metre ice castle will open to the public on Dec. 30th. Tickets available at icecastles.com/edmonton Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

Here’s me in the ice castle on Christmas eve. It was cold and wet but nice to have the whole place to myself to make the video.