The Website of Kyle Thomas (KyleWith)
On Friday a friend and I left Yellowknife and headed north. In my Jeep. We jumped onto the Ice Road that heads to the Diamond Mines and just kept driving.
The lakes got longer, the trees shorter and then all of a sudden they were gone.
We saw birds…
The landscape changed…
There was a sign…
And dead caribou…
Finally we ended up on the tundra.
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.
I guess I should remind you that I didn’t actually have cable before I started this. I have never had cable, I’m the next generation who likes to watch everything online. And I watched EVERYTHING online.
On to the update and I’m really happy to say it is going quite will. There have been one or two days where I’ll watch a movie but generally it is because I’m doing some mundane task like sorting my 2012 expenses.
I don’t miss shows at all. I followed a lot but now I don’t and it does seem to bother me. When I’m not working on some project I’m normally making bread, which is a project in itself.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95306799@N00/1360710739/
The question is: do I start watching TV again in March? I don’t think I will but we’ll see.
This past Saturday was what I would consider a good productive winters day in Yellowknife. It was an equal mix of pleasure and chores.
Like a typical Saturday the day started at the Yellowknife Dump. For those that doesn’t know; the Yellowknife Dump is one of the last dumps in Canada that you can still salvage at. The reason being is because Yellowknifers like there dump and the treasures.
My find this week at the dump was a big one. One that I’m sure you’ll probably question. It is a couch. A nice couch though. On a side note this is not the first time I have brought home furniture from the dump. The office chair I use in my home office was a dump find 6 years ago… it still works. The key to getting furniture at the dump is to: 1) make sure it is semi clean, 2) Leave it outside in the freezing cold and kill anything that might be alive and 3) clean it with a big combination of upholstery cleaner and Frebreeze.
http://instagram.com/p/WFRFNIMAY8/
After the dump, friends and I wandered the highway in search for some wildlife. In finding what looked to be an animal trail, turned out to be a trapline of sort. It was a well packed trail done by snowshoes. The area was really beautiful despite seeing no animals.
After getting home from the hike and tending to the bread that was rising in my kitchen I ventured back out to do some yard work. Mainly digging out my trailer. I hadn’t moved it since the fall and I needed to put new, bigger, tires on it. Ones that would allow me to pull it through the bush better when getting firewood. It was a lot of shovelling.
I then took it to my parent house where I put the new tires on.
http://instagram.com/p/WHnYfMsAZR/
At about 10pm last night we went out looking for the Auror but thanks to the snow we didn’t see any.
What did you do?
Well it is about time I do something with this bread I like making. I have been playing with this idea for a while but I have finally put in motion the project of baking bread for the homeless of Yellowknife.
It wont be big and fancy like I have seen in other cities. I’m simply going to make a bunch of bread and drop it off at the Salvation Army’s bread racks.
They get bread dropped off on Monday and Thursday, so my plan is to drop off a bunch of loaves on Wednesdays.
The nice thing about this project is that I will be getting the flour and sugar for the bread from Yellowknife’s Food Rescue program.
Stay tuned for an update.