Thursday, February 26th, 2015.

Somewhere near Bethune, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The ambient temperature is minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit), with an added wind-chill factor that makes it feel like a whopping minus 40 degrees Celsius (which conveniently translates to minus 40 Fahrenheit, for our US friends).

In conditions like this, any exposed skin can freeze in as little as 10 minutes. Not to mention how the cold could effect mechanical or electronic gear.

And this is the day our Java Post Aerial Photography flight crew picks to go shoot ongoing construction aerials of the K+S Potash Canada solution mine.

Oh well, at least the day was bright and sunny, so the images look fabulous. And, by all accounts and despite the extreme cold, our DJI Inspire 1 drone worked like a charm.

Our UAV pilot, the well-insulated "Java Jack" Tunnicliffe, poses with our DJI Inspire 1 drone on the launch pad at the K+S Potash mine, currently under construction near Bethune, Saskatchewan.

Jack is holding two control units for the UAV. He'll use one to pilot the drone, while our camera operator, Trevor Bennett (taking this photo) will use the second control unit to operate the Inspire's on-board 4K Ultra HD camera.

Joining in on the frigid fun was our K+S Potash mine escort, Destiny Pero (left). We bet Destiny wishes this crazy Java Post drone crew would have picked a warmer day to drag her around the mine site. But, after escorting our flight team on several previous occasions, Destiny is getting used to our wacky ways.

The solution mine site under construction. A massive project, to say the least. Judging by this shot, the national bird of K+S Potash Canada is the construction crane.

The scale of the construction is amazing and sometimes hard to comprehend just from aerial images. For example, the section seen above makes large semi-trailer trucks look like Hot Wheels toys.

With absolutely massive wooden A-frame beams, this looks like the largest ski chalet in the world under construction. To get a sense of scale, look at the portable lifts sitting beneath the beam structure.

The flight through this wooden-beamed building was very challenging, as there were guide wires strung throughout. Only a relatively narrow clear channel was available down the centre, and our experienced UAV crew was able to negotiate it without any difficulty.

The numerous construction cranes on the site kept our flight team on its toes. In situations like this, you really have to plan your shots and know your in-air positioning to ensure safe, collision-free flight.

Again, the on-going construction footprint out at this mine site is really impressive.

For the final shots of the day, we captured some aerial views of the drill rigs working out in the mine field. Here the crews drill deep down into the potash ore. Eventually they will pump water down into the ore body and essentially sluice out a liquified slurry of potash, which will then be refined in the above-ground plant buildings.

NOTE: It was a whole lot warmer when we took some "dronies" with Destiny Pero out at the mine site back in November of 2014. To read about that and see the photos, CLICK HERE.