Highway 3 Revisited!

A little play on Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, lol. NWT Highway 3 connects Yellowknife to The south (connecting to NWT Highway 1 near Fort Providence). Yesterday, Dale, Jenna and I went for a drive on Highway 3. We just wanted to get out for a quick drive to see want things we could see. We followed along the highway until reaching the Stagg River. From there we headed back to Yellowknife, making a few stops to snap some photos along our way home. There were two main places of interest, a pond created by a gravel pit that had beautiful glacier coloured water and the second was a small pond with red and yellow moss and foliage all around with a beautiful sky above. I took several versions of the second and will post each here and you can choose which you like. Jenna wanted to shoot as well and she decided my Maxxum 7 35mm film camera would work nicely for her. I captured a shot of her using it. It was a great way to kill and afternoon but, once we arrived home Jenna made it clear that she want to go out and spend some more time driving and shooting. So, Jenna and I decided we would load a few items in the truck, head out again and stay the night. We headed out again and continued to Mosquito Creek just past Becho’ko. We pulled off the Highway and went all the way down to the creek. There we watched a movie, ate and just hung out. This morning we were up early to see if we could find any wildlife. It was a great night and some great time spent with Jenna. We saw lots of ducks, a sandhill crane and three snowshoe hare before making our way back to town. Here is what we saw yesterday and this morning. Enjoy, thanks for hunting out and as always Happy Shooting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The scale of the Paulatuk Landscape

This is the last night of this trip to Paulatuk and while I sit here writing, I am assuming that most, if not all, of you readers have never been here. I have blogged about Paulatuk several times (three time in the last three nights) so, it may give some of you a little familiarity with the community but nothing I say or show can give a view of the area as well as being here. Tonight, I thought I would display several images of the same subject (one item in the landscape) to try to give you an idea of the scale of the area around Paulatuk. To show just how big the Canadian Arctic can be. About a kilometre from the community is the frame-work of someone’s old camp building. It has been there in the same place since I have been traveling here and it has always interested me. Yesterday, while I traveled around, I took several photos of the old camp frame. I used a variety of focal lengths to portray a number of different views of the landscape around this small old building. In a couple of them you may need to search for the wooden structure as it will be very small. When I am out snapping photographs of this part of the north I love how it makes me feel so small and at times I like how alone I feel while standing with nothing but Canadian wilderness around me. No buildings, no cars, no crowds of people, the business of normal everyday life is gone. It is quiet and very relaxing to me. I think I need to just hike here for a week or so, no phones, no internet, just fresh clean air and wide open spaces. My wife and girls are laughing right now at the thought of me going crazy without the internet, lol. I could do it ladies! Anyway enough talking, here is how wide open the Canadian Arctic can be. If you want to come experience it for yourself everyone here will welcome you and heck I will come with you. Here is a sample of what you can see and feel, enjoy, thanks for popping in and as always Happy Shooting.

 

 

 

 

 

Another May Day in Paulatuk.

This morning I was up and had planned a photo shoot for myself just as I did yesterday. I guess I should explain why I seem to have this free time on a work trip to Paulatuk. Well, I am here often as I stated previously and usually go shooting after work is complete. For this trip I planned a few extra days for two reasons; the first is to have some time available to help a couple of people in Paulatuk with some finance issues/needs. I didn’t want to pressure any of them into having me do their work but, I made sure they knew I was available if they chose to want some assistance. The second is that I wanted some time to just be in Paulatuk, to hang out, to take in the area to be part of the Hamlet for a few days and of course to photograph. So far my weekend in Paulatuk has been great. I had two mornings of shooting the area and lots of time to do some photo editing and to create these blog posts. A few months ago I took some engagement photos for a couple I know here and before I leave they will have all those images and will no longer have to wait for my crazy schedule to slow for them to get their photos. It has been quite overcast for the past few days but, as I write this the sun appears to be poking through the cloudy skies (which means I made need to go out and shoot again later). Today I wanted to capture some of the things I saw but didn’t capture yesterday, some of the birds that have returned, the Sic-Sic I saw in the afternoon and a few things around town. I was able to do that but, still missed some new things. I spotted three Sandhill Cranes but, didn’t get any images of them, I watched a bird of prey (some type of hawk I believe) fly past and didn’t get a shot of it but, there were some things I did capture (see below). All in all I am enjoying my time here and I am already looking forward to my next visit. Here is what I saw this morning as I traveled in and around the Hamlet of Paulatuk. Enjoy, thanks for following along and as always, Happy Shooting.

A Sic-Sic, can’t you just hear him yell “Allan, Allan, Allan”

Finally a Snow Bunting that would stay still, lol.

Beautiful even when it is a bad hair day.

Funny, I haven’t seen any Caribou on this trip!

Paulatuk in May

Today I am in Paulatuk, NT. I am actually in Paulatuk quite often and I can tell as several locals welcomed me home as I stepped off Aklak Air’s Beechcraft 1900D. I like Paulatuk a lot and enjoy visiting here, it has a landscape that is uniquely northern and unlike anywhere else I have been. Also, Paulatuk is a Inuit Community and the fact that my Grandmother was an Inuit woman from Nain, Labrador gives me another connection to Paulatuk and the other communities in this area. My work brings me here and I am quite happy with that however, Paulatuk should be on the must visit list of every traveller, if it is for work or otherwise. Being one of the friendliest communities I visit is only one thing that should make you consider visiting, there are others. Paulatuk is the closest community to Tuktut Nogait National Park and the people here have a great connection to the park and the history of the land here. I haven’t been to the park yet but, when I do get there (and I will get there) I feel having connected with the community will add to my future park experience. The Brock and Hornaday Rivers run in the park, the Brock River Canyon have been described to me as the Grand Canyon of the Canadian North, and the Hornaday River has unique features and La Roncière Falls. Tuktut Nogait means “Young Caribou” and the area is home to the Bluenose-West Caribou herd. I photographed a beautiful Caribou buck during a pervious trip to Paulatuk. Paulatuk is also near the Smoking Hills (about 65 miles from the community). The Smoking Hills contain a hydrocarbon which have been burning for centuries and the smoke produced is what gives the hills their name. Also 59 miles to the northeast is the DEW line site of Cape Perry and some locals still visit the site there.  Of course, The Paulatuk Moonlight Drummers and Dancer are from the community, if you don’t know who they are I suggest you go to youtube and check them out. There is a Hotel here in Paulatuk and a Northern Store for your needs and there is an abundance of local people to story tell or just say hello. Aklak Air has three scheduled flights a week here, if you want to visit make sure you check their schedule.

I decided to write this today due to an event in Yellowknife. Samantha Stuart, a friend and fellow photographer, has organized a photo walk in Yellowknife. I can’t be there today so, I decided I would take to the area in and around Paulatuk to do a photo drive/walk of my own. With a little fresh snow from last nights flurries Paulatuk spring won’t look like May in many southern communities but, I am glad I am here today to see this beautiful place and share some of what I see with the two or three people who might listen and read what I say, lol. Enjoy the images below and if you want to come see this area for yourself, let me know as I know I will be back maybe can join you and I know I can help with planning your visit. For now, thanks for stopping by and as always Happy Shooting.

The Paulatuk Area Landscape taken on the Rat Lake Road

 

Wind blown Rocks and Snow

 

Snow holding fast to wind swept vegetation

 

The Hamlet of Paulatuk as seen from a hill top on the Rat Lake Road

Driving the Dempster!

Between trips up the Winter Ice Road, I had to make a trip to Paulatuk for work.  My flight connection required me to overnight in Inuvik and the next day the weather decided I should stay in Inuvik for a while, two days actually. On day two of our layover, my business partner and I decided to rent a truck and drive the Dempster Highway to the Yukon. I had never driven the Dempster before and just one day earlier it was closed due to weather conditions, this could get interesting. By lunch time we had our rental and some munchies and we were off. Our plan was to make it to the Yukon border and cross it before heading back. We knew we would stop in Fort McPherson for dinner on our return (my business partner has family there). We would make several stops to just take in our surroundings and I was snapping photos everywhere. It was a great day and I know now that I have to drive the entire Dempster Highway in summer or early fall, it was amazing. Here are some images I created during that day of driving. Thanks for stopping in, enjoy the images and for those of you looking for part two of the Caribou, don’t worry it is coming as is part two of Driving the Dempster. Thanks again and as always Happy Shooting.

13 for 2013

As 2013 comes to a close I went back and looked through all my images for the year, there weren’t as many as I thought but never the less, it was a great year of photography for me. I spent most of the year not worrying about posting or blogging but just focused more on things I wanted to see and do. I can honestly say I really enjoyed 2013. I decided I would pick 13 of my favourite images and do a post with those images. The images would need to span the entire year and they would need to show different subject matter not just landscapes (although most of them will be).  It was actually much easier then I expected it to be and in a few hours I was down to around 25 images or so. I continued to reduce the number down, 19, 17, 15 and finally the 13 images shown below. Remembering taking each image was as rewarding as seeing my final choices. Again it was a great year. Out of the thousands of images I had taken in 2013 here are the ones I decided I enjoyed most (in no particular order). I hope you enjoy them as well. Thanks for following along this past year and stay tuned for images from 2014. As always Happy Shooting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spot Light on Natalja Westwood

If you follow my blog, or if you are in the NWT and have been to a Skills Canada Northwest Territories Event, you may know that one of the things I love to do is mentoring students/youth in the Skills Program. I am the Photography Tech Chair for Skills Canada NWT and have done some photography workshops in a few NWT communities. I really enjoy that work, if you can even call it work. I love to see what the students create and I love their enthusiasm, it is a very rewarding program to be a part of. Recently I went back to one of those communities for a follow-up workshop and I was able to work with several students for a second time. So, I head back to Ulukhaktok. Jan Fullerton the E.D. of Skills Canada NWT and Aimee Yurris (a former Skills baking competitor who finished fourth at nationals) were also on the trip, the three of us would spend the better part of 4 days in the community teaching some of the high school students. Having Aimee added to the enjoyment because whatever her and the students would make I would get to eat, lol. It was great, thanks to Aimee for her amazing work.

Ok, before I keep rambling on about the trip and Skills I will get back to the reason for this post. One of the Ulukhaktok students has been bitten by the photography bug. Taking what she learned previously and applying it to her work, buying her own photography equipment and, as I am told, she can be seen around the community with camera in hand creating images. I hadn’t seen any of her work since my last trip so, I got handed a memory card (by the Vice Principal) and was told to look through the hundreds of pictures. Knowing we hadn’t done any work on photo editing yet, I wasn’t looking to see images that had lots of post processing but, images right out of the camera. Images that would tell me what this young lady was seeing. I would have a little insight into how she was applying her photography knowledge, knowledge gained from the previous workshop and a year of shooting. I wasn’t expecting anything, no preconceived ideas of what I would see, no idea of the subject matter, I was just interested in seeing the world of this young photographer. Well, I was very surprised. I knew to expect some good images but I was a little blown away. There were 624 images on the memory card I was given to review and there were lots of great ones. I had trouble deciding which ones I would use for a post production discussion and a general photography discussion. While Aimee worked with the students, I narrowed my choices – first down to about 65 images and then down further to a dozen or so. It was hard, not just because there were lots of great shots but also, because I was picking what I enjoyed with no idea what my young student liked. I told myself to be careful and continued. Once my decision was complete I went ahead and started some minor editing. No crazy post processing, just the basics. I would keep a copy of the original images for side by side comparison and again some discussion. When I had everything the way I wanted, I did a couple of private slide shows for some school staff, they were quite pleased. During our second day, Jan and I did a session on editing and Adobe Lightroom (I actually use Aperture but they have very similar tool sets). We had some images for discussion and would do some editing live on-screen. During one of the breaks I decided to play slide show I made to the young photographer who created the original images.  The slide show featured the edited images, the ones I had chosen for editing. After we did some editing on the original versions so she could watch what things I would do and what effect they would have on the images. I would guess we spent less than 2 minutes on each image. I think it was a great teaching tool and it was just as important to me as anyone else. So, what did I see you ask?

Well,  I would like to introduce you to the work/images created by Natalja Westwood a High School student in Helen Kalvak School in Ulukhaktok, NWT. I am proud to say Natalja was in a workshop I lead and I will thank her for showing me that this stuff I do with Skills Canada NWT is well worth all the effort. Great work Natalja keep it up and enjoy what you do. To anyone in Ulukhaktok or anyone who may visit there, Natalja is the one carrying around the Nikon gear and snapping away. Here are the images Natalja created, enjoy thanks for reading along and as Happy Shooting.

What I saw in Ulukhaktok.

I spent the better part of four days in Ulukhaktok, November 30 to December 3, 2013. The first thing I noticed on this trip was that the sun no longer came up. It appears that Ulukhaktok has some light, it looks like the half hour before the sun actually rises and only last for two and one half hours, which is great if you have nothing to de between 10:30am and around 2:00pm.  For me I would spend most of that time at the school. On my second night, while out for dinner, the topic of discussion turned to Aurora. I thought that due to its latitude Ulukhaktok didn’t have big Aurora shows like we get in Yellowknife and I was told that was correct. As we left our dinner host for the evening there was a hint of Aurora sitting lower in the sky and as we headed to the hotel the Aurora grew. I was overjoyed that there was Aurora in Ulukhaktok and I quickly grabbed my camera equipment and headed outside to capture a few images. It was fun shooting the northern lights in unfamiliar territory. I shot for a little while and decided to stop after the RCMP came and checked me out in case I was drinking, lol. I guess walking back and forth behind my tripod in the middle of the street looked odd to the local RCMP. We all had a good laugh, I took two more shots and then headed inside for the night. I don’t think this is my best Aurora work but, when will I ever get a chance to shoot Aurora in Ulukhaktok again. I did some shooting inside the school and even got to photograph the Elders teaching some youth traditional culture. One of the instructors gave me some sweet root to try. I was told it was called Eskimo gum.  It wasn’t chewy like gum and after chewing for ten minutes or so I would describe it like chewing a dirty stick, lol. Maybe that is why no one else tried it. There were no more shots taken outside until we were at the airport waiting for our flight home. I capture a few images while waiting for First Air to arrive. From there we were on the plane back to Kugluktuk and then back home. Another great week to be me. Here is some of what I saw during my four days. Enjoy, thanks for being here and as always Happy Shooting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fort Resolution, what I saw.

During the workshop in Fort Resolution I didn’t actually take many photos. I captured a few while the class was on but nothing of my usual fair. The Remembrance Day holiday was the day I had chosen to travel between Fort Resolution and Fort Smith (I actually did another workshop at PWK High School in Fort Smith on the Tuesday and Wednesday and headed back to Yellowknife early thursday morning). For now, back to November 11, knowing I had lots of time to make it to Fort Smith, I wasn’t concerned about getting out of Fort Resolution to early and I wasn’t concerned about the number of stops I would make. I should have a good day to capture a few images. I was up pretty early and decided to drive around Fort Resolution and scout out some photo locations. Once I saw some interesting things I waited for the sun to rise and once it was up I started to capture a few images. After a couple of hours I hit the road to Fort Smith. I saw no big wildlife during the drive, no Bison, no Wolves, nothing. I only saw a few Spruce Grouse along the way. I did stop to photography some of those but, continued on at a good pace to Fort Smith. It was a great day and I really enjoyed my time in Fort Resolution. In the few days that followed I had another great time with the students in Fort Smith. It was a great week to be me. Here is a sample of what I saw. Enjoy, thanks for stopping and as always Happy Shooting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I captured a few image of the beach in Fort Resolution and had some trouble deciding which one I liked best. I have narrowed it down to my final two. Let me know which one you prefer.

 

Beach Image 1 – my current favourite

 

Beach Image 2

 

The Amazing Youth from Fort Resolution!

Today I finished my second day of a two-day workshop at Deninu School in Fort Resolution, NWT. The workshop was arranged between a Teacher, Alex, and Skills Canada NWT. There were five students attending the two days of classes, Tori and Tamara (two-thirds of the triplets, lol), Braiden, Isaac and Sam (Sam is thinking I saved the best for last again, I can hear her, lol). Alex was also sitting in and she will be leading the photography charge from here. The workshop itself was pretty informal, getting in the ideas and some of the technical things but letting Alex and her class determine the direction we went and when classroom stuff would stop and actual shooting would start. I decided to not be involved in the shooting. I had a couple of reasons, one was that I wasn’t really prepared for the temperature (for an hour in near -20) and the second was I wanted to see if any of the classroom discussion was actually being learned (without me giving direction again). Did anyone pay attention? Well I guess you can check below to see what these five young people did. I also learned a few things. First, Alex is really dedicated to her students and is going above and beyond to make sure they get everything they can from their education. Second is the fact that these young people are great. They came to a workshop at school for two of the three days of a long weekend and they asked several times to stay later and continue with workshop stuff. All six (Alex and the Students) made me feel very welcome and glad I decided to come to Fort Resolution to do this event. I even got a photo thank you, Isaac decided to write “Thank you Lee” is the fresh snow and photograph it for a little slide show today. Thank you Isaac, I appreciated that. Thanks to Alex and the rest of the gang as well, you guys are great. Did I say “I love the work I do for Skills” lately? If not I am now. Tomorrow is a free day for me to travel to Fort Smith so I can do this all over again. Oh and before I go, thanks Jan and the Skills team for giving me this opportunity again. Last night I looked through all the images taken and picked seven from each student. I than edited each one and did a slide show for the class. I am posting only one image from each student today, leaving the others for a possible future follow-up blog post. Here is what the future of photography in Fort Resolution saw this weekend. Enjoy, thanks for following along and as always Happy Shooting.

 

Tori’s Image
@ Tori

 

Tamara’s Image
@ Tamara

 

Braiden’s Image
@ Braiden

 

Isaac’s Image
@ Isaac

 

Sam’s Image
@ Sam