The clouds broke and the aurora magically appeared above Kelly Turcotte’s wall tent, where he mushes sled dogs, in the bush east of Churchill. Canon 7D, 16-35mm lens, f 2.8, 2.5 second exposure, 800 ISO.
Hey guys, I thought I would post a few images from the first ever Northern Lights Photography Expedition to Churchill, Manitoba, that I guided last week. The mission of the trip was to photograph the aurora with things that symbolize the North Country in the foreground. Dog musher Kelly Turcotte’s tent, lit from the inside by lantern light, is about as good as you can get.
Aurora image, canon 7d, f2.8, 4 second exposure, ISO 800.
Anamaria Chediak is a professional nature photographer who joined our trip with her husband Juan. Check out her website here.
Photographing and viewing the aurora is a challenging, but magical experience.
Churchill has a totally different feel in the middle of winter as it does during Polar Bear Season. It is very quiet, slow paced, and feels even more like you are in the frontier. The first day we saw a Bombardier snow bus, a B-12 I think, that had traveled south 250 miles down the ice trail on Hudson Bay from the Inuit Village of Arviat, Nunuvut Province. This is the real deal up here.
These machines predate the snowmobile, but are still running in remote areas of the Canadian Arctic.
WInter is tough in Churchill, which sits on the shores of Hudson Bay. High winds, blowing snow, and subzero temperatures as low as 55 below define the character of the town and its residents.
Image of a comatik, which is used to pull freight or people behind a snowmachine.
We spent most of each night searching the skies for auroras, and the bright, beautiful days exploring this quirky and very friendly outpost. We tried our hands at the complex sport of curling, and on another day we learned how to build an igloo from Mike Goodyear of the Northern Studies Center.
Mike shows us how to use a long blade to cut the hard packed block of snow during our Igloo building workshop.
Al Adcock follows Mike’s instructions and adds another block to the igloo.
Finished project.
view from inside the igloo.
We returned to photograph the igloo in candlelight. Too bad the aurora didnt show because of heavy clouds, but it was beautiful anyway.
How romantic.
It is windy and 20 below outside, but it is toasty and cozy inside the igloo.
Spending an afternoon sledding with Kelly Turcotte and his dogs.
Slow exposure, motion blur. f22, 1/30th sec, ISO 100, panning with subject. This technique is difficult, but if you get it right, it shows motion in the image.
Kelly’s Ford pickup, with a sled on the roof, backlit in moonlight.
It was yet another amazing trip to Churchill. I appreciate the place more each day I spend there. For me it has gone beyond polar bears, foxes, and aurora borealis. There is a feeling in the community that really grows on you. In an outpost this harsh, with so many hazards at hand, the human spirit is simplified, purifed, and fortified. Churchill is one of those places that seems to be locked in a time capsule, and its people come from a different era. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to spend so much time there, and share it with other travelers. I have two more trips coming up, Ill keep you posted.
5 Comments
Ah, Brad, even though Lenka & I just enjoyed a great few days in Costa Rica, I — and I’m sure Lenka — wish we would have shared your Churchill trip but are enjoying your photos, Thanks, Fred
NOTE: Did you see my “Album” on FB of “A day around Homer” from my experiences in Aug-2005 ??
Beautiful pictures, especially the side view of the sled in motion and the mushing tent. Then again, I’m a bit biased, Kelly is my brother in law
wow, you have a really cool brother in law. I love Kelly and have known him for years. I just met your sister this week and she is awesome! I was so happy to see her mushing! What a great couple.
Wow! Awesome pictures Brad…I really enjoyed looking at all your pics. And so glad you were there to capture my 1rst time riding the dogs. Thanks so much.
Hello Brad–love your photos–especially those of aurora! I know you have an upcoming photography tour to Churchill and wanted to let you and other sky-admirers know that a realtively newly-discovered comet is likely to be visible soon in the Northern Hemisphere. The best viewing (naked-eye) for comet Pan STARRS should be about a half-hour after sunset on the evenings of March 12 and 13, 2013. Imagine photographing northern lights with a comet in the picture!! I have included a link below that tells more about this comet. Here is one sentence taken from that article: “March 12 and 13: The best dates to look for Pan STARRS; it should emerge in the western sunset sky not far from the crescent moon.” I realize that aurora is likely to occur several hours past that time, but hey, maybe aurora will be early and you could get a celestial double-feature! It’s more than worth a look!