aurora

Apr 17 2014

Why I like people more than the aurora

I have done very little aurora photography this year. It is surprising considering last year I did it so much but I shifted. I got bored with the aurora. To me every time I saw the aurora, while aways spectacular (plug: come visit), it was just the same. The same thing over and over again.

Sure many will say there are things you can do to make it catchy. Do it by a lake, cabin, with people in it, more landscapes, etc. But there is still a serious lack of story there for me.

What I have found is that I’m looking for more than a photo. I’m looking for a story. Not a hard hitting, top secret story, just any story. It could be the simplest thing because even that simplest little story has a much greater connection for me.

Riel wife

Aug 31 2013

Last night was unreal

Last night, on a Friday night, I had the most wonderful time just taking in Yellowknife and the North. It will never get old and I will say it over and over and over and you will get tired of hearing it from me but it is oh so true.

If you are bored, just leave.

My evening started when a friend and I grabbed a quick dinner and our cameras and headed out. We didn’t know where we were going but I wanted to trying push forward with my project about recording the stories of many of Yellowknife street people.

I was absolutely blown away, and I have done this several times now, how welcoming, polite and generous many people are when I approach. I thank them for their time. I only hope they know how much I appreciate the conversations I have. Throughout the 2.5 hours we walked the streets we met many people. For the last hour we were down town we spent it with someone very special to me. We sat down with him and just had a blast talking about so much and I am so blessed to be called his friend. I can’t wait to tell this mans story, he is truly a wonder soul.

We left downtown eventually and headed towards Pontoon Lake where we were going to set up for some aurora shooting.

As we pulled up to “the spot” a large lanky looking dog trotted out from the shore of the lake onto the road. Only thing was this wasn’t a dog, it was a white wolf. A beautiful creature. He slowly meandered across the road, checking us out. It was to dark for a photo but he crossed the road and walked up a rock face onto a hill. Standing there staring at us, all we could see was his outline as a silhouette against the ever fading blue sky. It was special.

I often feel like I have this small gift for showing up at places exactly at the right time to get the best show of Northern Lights. After the wolf left, we pulled in and setup. As soon as we did the aurora just took off, dancing, twisting, sparkling and moving. Green and purple. It was a show that you’d think cost lots of money. Who is the lighting genius that created this number.

15 minutes later it was over.

Nights like this don’t happen very often but boy am I feeling good that I got to experience all that.

Aug 06 2013

How to take Aurora Photographs with only a Flashlight

Sometimes you go out to photograph the Aurora Borealis in Yellowknife and they just don’t show up. So you make your own aurora.

1. Practise circles. Start small.

2. Go bigger. Make bigger circles.

3. Focus really hard on the light.

4. Turn yourself into light. Be one with the light.

5. Think of winter. Maybe a snowman will help.

6. Get Marcus to make a horse.

7. Envision the great outdoors, and maybe a wolf.

8. Pretend you are driving to the ultimate Aurora spot, in Yellowknife of course.

9. Have Marcus set more of a scene with animals.

10. Maybe a bigger animal.

11. Okay we got it. Here it is THE AURORA!

12. To be clear for people, spell it out. Make sure to spell it correctly.

Done you have just created your very own aurora and photographed it at the same time.

Mar 08 2013

My Response to Pat Kane’s Love/Hate Relationship with the Aurora

First you must go read Yellowknife Photographer Pat’s blog post My Love/Hate Relationship with the Aurora.

My response is preach, brother preach. I get where Pat is coming from. You see one photo of the aurora, you have seen them all. I am guilty of being an “aurora chaser” going out night after night looking for the aurora to photograph. I don’t know why. Its not like I do much with the photos.

I’ll uploaded one or two on Flickr, maybe one to YkOnline’s Facebook Page and then they disappear into my archive.

It must be because aurora photography is not just about getting great photos of the aurora, which is nice, it is more about actually getting out and experiencing the wonders of the NWT on a consistent basis. For me anyways. Last week for example I ended up on Johnston Lake, which is way up an ice road. If it hadn’t of been for the aurora I would have not gone up there. I wouldn’t have seen a couple foxes, a lynx and heard an owl.

That said though, the aurora are the most marketable tourism product the NWT has to offer. People, whether we agree or not, find the aurora borealis fascinating and spectacular and want to see it in person. So in order for us to convince them to come to the NWT and spend their money here, we need to show them that we have the best lights show in the world. This involves photos. This involves us as local ambassadors to talk and show how great they are.

I completely agree with Pat on the front that the NWT also has amazing people and culture. Personally I love documenting people more than the aurora. People can tell stories… the aurora are – and to quote Pat – green blobs.

The solution I see, not that there needs to be one, is capture people with the aurora, bring them north to see them and then expose them to the north’s rich culture, history and people.

Apr 15 2012

My Hidden Lake Adventures

I have tried to get out to Hidden Lake every other weekend this winter and that seems to be working. I went out for Friday night and most of Saturday this weekend and now I feel exhausted but it is always fun.

This was one of my hang-ups living in Fort St. John, I didn’t get out in the woods much. It could have been for several reasons: I didn’t know where to go, there wasn’t a place to go, no one to go with or maybe I just had a general lack of ambition to do so down there. None of those are a problem here in the Northwest Territories. It is my domain, where I grew up, what I know.

There is not just one cabin I could go use, there is 3, all on different lakes spread out outside of Yellowknife. Even though my snowmobile broke earlier this year I have friends who lend me theirs. I’m never without access to the great outdoors and the ambition is there.

Hidden Lake is one of my favourite places to escape to because there is no contact with the outside world. In other words no cell phone service. The cabin itself is well setup with a propane furnaces that doesn’t require any maintenance other than changing out the bottles. Even then three 100lb bottles hooked up into the system allow it to go for several weekends without needing to be changed.

The cabin is located on a ridge of rock at one end of this lake and even though I have gone to this cabin now for almost ten years I finally climbed the ridge this winter. Check out the view:

While there is a lot of time for good R&R we do get some work and maintenance around the cabin done. This past trips project was to get some scrap wood out from behind the outhouse so we could have a bonfire. While I was cutting a trail in towards the outhouse I got the snowmobile stuck – this in no way reflects the performance of the snowmobile, just the driver 😉 – so we had to cut it out.

It did eventually drive right out of there once we cut out the brush that was wrapped around the skis.

Moving on to a more recreational activity, no winter outing at a cabin in the Northwest Territories would be complete without some Ice Fishing and Hidden Lake offers some of the best. Ciscos are often a good choice for bait when Ice Fishing and sure enough out of our three holes we caught a Lake Trout.

Finally of course would be the Northern Lights or Aurora. Getting out of Yellowknife with all its light pollution generally means the aurora will be good and sure enough – when I was actually awake – they were.