Kyle Thomas

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A Trip to Tuktoyuktuk with Bob Heath

Bob Heath is a pilot who has flown the skies of the Inuvik region for 25 years. That is longer than I have even been on this earth. As he described himself, he is a short fat man with a beard and less and less hair each day. So naturally he sounds like a great guy to me and someone who doesn’t take himself to seriously.

I suppose if you fly around the same place for 25 years you have to find humour in something.

Upon arriving back to the Inuvik Airport and meeting Bob, I also met a couple who were also coming over to Tukoyuktuk for the ride. Graham and Carolyn Downer are from Rockwood, ON and fly all over Canada and the north in their little Cessna aircraft. They have traveled extensively through the NWT and Yukon throughout the past twenty years and have no thoughts of changing that.

Aklak Air, Inuvik

As the 4 of us stood at the Twin Otter and waited for the reset of the passengers slated to join us on this sched flight Bob starts telling us about everything. This is an example of a true northerner, a person who has not only been around for a long time but also loves talking about it and sharing it with other people. In my opinion this man should be a tour operator as well as a pilots.

Bob starts off by saying “the first thing you will notice about this Twin Otter is the giant tires we have on it…” The Tundra Tires, as I call them, are over sized tires for the Twin Otter that hold air but not up to the same pressure as a standard aircraft tire. What makes the tires so great is that combined with the Twin Otters ability to land and take-off in very short spaces Bob can land and take-off almost anywhere on the tundra at anytime. He goes on to explain how the tires actually come from a big DC3, like Buffalo Joe flies, but they take several layers of tread off them making them lighter.

While in the plane, Bob hooked us up with headphones so we could listen in to the commentary, which was when the tour really started.

On the way to Tuk we followed the river and Bob told us about everything we saw. The seismic lines where testing of minerals happened, where all the giant trees on the river came from, who and where the reindeer herders are and my personal favourite, how Pingos are actually formed. In the entire 30 minute flight he never stopped.

When we landed in Tuk and had a few minutes before having to leave again, Bob told us about the community. More about the Pingos, the community freezer and how in the 80’s oil companies had a huge presence in Tuk making the community double its size. The town of 900 on the Arctic Ocean Coast even had regular flights to Edmonton and Calgary.

Our way back to Inuvik took us over a lake that spans 150 miles. I don’t remember the name of the lake but it is one of the most popular in the area. It is unique because at the north end of the lake salt water from the ocean comes in and mixes with the fresh water. So one part of the lake is salt water, one part is fresh and the middle is a mix. I guess this makes for some of the best fishing and even more strange is that on the odd occasion whales have even come into the lake. The lake has several seasonal cabins on it for hunting and fishing season. Bob was even able to name almost off of them.

After landing back in Inuvik and parting ways with Bob, Graham and Carolyn, I was still in awe at how much I had just learned about the area in a short amount of time.

The thoughts that were racing through my head were, how do I market this guy. He is a hidden gem of the north but he also represents what the north is all about. Maybe that is what makes him such a gem for those who meet him, he’s not a tourism operator, he is a pilot of the area and maybe that the way he wants to keep it.

Either way, it was an honour to me Bob Heath.

An Arctic Wind Farm

About a month into working at Motion Media out of Fort St. John, I got the chance to photograph the Dokie Ridge Wind Farm. The wind farm is located outside of Chetwynd, BC and stretches a long way along a ridge.

Of course, I don’t have those picture anymore to prove it, but I do have this video.

Photo by: Andrew Tylosky

The farm was nearing completion of its build. There were numerous wind turbines standing over 100m tall and when you would stand beside them, you were nothing.

When I was driving back to Yellowknife, from Fort St. John, I saw the same turbines being trucked north. I had no idea what they were for at the time. I half jokingly said they are probably going to a mine, apparently I was right.

I guess the news broke a while ago, but the local Yellowknife paper did a piece on what and how the turbines will be used. They will be heading to Diavik Diamond Mine and will help power the mine. THIS IS BRILLIANT.

I can imagine how amazing it will look. In the middle of nowhere, literally in the arctic, a mine and giant free-standing windmills. Epic.

Back when I was working with Motion Media I wanted to get up in a helicopter and shoot the Dokie Ridge Wind Farm again, but that never came around. Maybe I can get in somehow to shoot this them, when they are built. 😉 Wouldn’t that be something.

It’ll be interesting to watch the project come together.

Remembering Bishop John Sperry

In the summer of 2002 I made my first trip to the small community of Bathurst Inlet. The community in partnership with long-time northern family the Warners operated an Eco-tourism lodge in the community, appropriately called Bathurst Inlet Lodge.

It was that first summer that I met a man by the name of Jack Sperry. Everyone knew him as Bishop John Sperry though, because that is who he was, but to those of us at Bathurst, it was Jack. At one time he traveled the arctic, mostly by dog sled, visiting communities along the way. Honestly, I don’t really know what he did back then, other than it was Anglican missions related and I regret that.

I was so fortunate when I was younger to be exposed to the history of the Arctic and its people, but at that age I didn’t comprehend a lot of it. There is so much I think back on that I wish I could have done to hear those stories, the history and about the people. I admire them nowadays, and I’m saddened to hear of the loss of Bishop Sperry.

For a few summers after I remember seeing Bishop Sperry talking with the guests of the Lodge. Telling them stories of the past and how life use to be. And although he wasn’t a native to the north, the detail he processed when it came to the culture and the language was captivating.

I hold people like Bishop Sperry very high, not because of what they may have done all those years ago, but because they continued to share that knowledge. They were so passionate about it that they continued to tell the stories and pass on the history.

On February 7, 2012 Bishop John Sperry received a Diamond Jubilee medal to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s 60 year reign of the United Kingdom. On February 12, 2012, Bishop John Sperry passed away in Hay River, surrounded by family.

To quote Page Burt, another friend for Bathurst Inlet, “he leaves a great void in the hearts of people right across the North, and far beyond.”

Read more here. Photo Credit: JANE GEORGE

KyleWith: Photographer Kyle Marquardt

[podcast]http://static1.squarespace.com/static/53888dece4b0b0e91301d66b/t/55b33b90e4b026c10917fa9a/1437809615461/kw_kylemarquardt.mp3/original/kw_kylemarquardt.mp3[/podcast]

Click here to download or listen on an iOS Device

Don’t let the fact I butchered his last name stop you from checking out Kyle Marquardt’s work, because it is quite good. Kyle, like many photographers I have talked to, discovered his interest in photography at a young age. For Kyle it was high school. He tells me he took pictures of everything and had his camera with him everywhere. After high school he decided to pursue it further and go to Ryerson University in Toronto for Photography.

Kyle’s career started out much like anyone else’s that would want to get into professional photography at a young age, he became an assistant. Whether for a wedding shoot or in a studio, he would be there helping. He also tells me in the show, that a large part of learning was making mistakes and he did make some along his way.

Apkatok Island

So how did Kyle end up going to the Arctic, Antarctica and around the world? Well it all started with a Travel Company he volunteered at. He would make them slideshows and edit their photos, but eventually they saw his potential and offered him a trip to the Canadian Arctic, so off he went. Then of course one thing lead to another, which he explain in full detail in the show.

If you ask Kyle what makes him think of “warm and fuzzy”, he’ll probably tell you his over 50,000 Google Plus followers. He is extremely humble about the attention and makes the daily effort to post a photo across all networks. For him the Social Networks are a great way to get his photos out there, but also a good learning tool to get people feedback.  He is also more than willing to teach what he has learned and often has a Photoshop tutorial on his blog for others to use.

It was a real pleasure talking with, Calgary based Photographer, Kyle Marquardt. He is on a journey that is exciting and he is earning it. To hear all this and more, be sure to listen to this episode.

Be sure to check out his website/blog, Facebook Page, Twitter and of course Google Plus.

Thanks for listening and don’t forget to Subscribe on iTunes or by Email here.

Don’t forget if you know someone doing something interesting (or another photographer or yourself) send me their info, I want to talk to them!

Treeline Lodge’s Peggy’s Pit

I introduced Treeline Lodge last week, a place that now lives in my memories. I will now share specific parts of the Treeline Lodge I remember, this time Peggy’s Pit.

As I mentioned Treeline Lodge was built close to two old mines and because of that there was a fairly large road system in the area. The roads weren’t elaborate and was just made of gravel. Because of the relatively flat tundra building the roads would have been easy but the gravel would have had to been created from something.

So to make the gravel, a large rock area was, I’m assuming, blasted out to make said gravel. Gravel was continued to be blasted out of the large rock until a pit was formed.

The name comes from an owner of mines in the North at that time, although her reputation is not in good terms in the north. Supposedly Petty Witte, aka Margret Kent, cheated many people and fled the north.

Peggy’s Pit was one of the first things I remember about Treeline because the pit is far from any lake but is full of water and has cliffs that reach out of the ground.  If memory serves right, the water gradually goes down 30 or so feet. It was a cool place to head in the evening and hang out.

Treeline

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