At least a few of you out there who follow my work knew that throughout last year and early this year I had been planning an expedition to cross Baffin Island on foot, in Canada's Far North. However, later this year, areas I had yet to see images of in Arctic Norway caught my eye on maps I was looking over and pretty soon, plans changed. I went into planning an October trip this year to Norway's furthest northern reaches, doing dozens of hours of map research on routes to what I suspected to be photogenic locations. But then, 3 days before I was about to leave, I realized I could not go this year.
I miss spending time with family, for one, having to myself as it is only about 1 month home out of every year. Despite our many trips elsewhere, I felt bad being away for three and a half months strait again this fall and needed a few weeks down-time before my next major travels. The other reason though, is that Alaska and it's Boundary Range has been calling me back with a great urgency I can not ignore. After spending the late summer trekking and doing some aerial photography and scouting of the range I spent 35 days solo packing across last year, I have decided that instead I will depart after my time with family for a 3-week solo trip in early winter, skiing or snowshoeing some of the gnarliest parts of this largely unphotographed range.
So as normal, as every day of my life, my plans change on a whim. I often have to remind myself where I have woken up in the morning. Any of you who have done a tour with me know that often, there is no itinerary! It's all a reaction, in nature photography, not a set plan. At least for me, that's how I maintain the strongest connnection to and interpretations of the places I visit. I am always trying to keep both eyes open to everything around me, and listen to my gut and my heart. In fact, I think freedom is defined by being able to live one's life that way, and if I can, I do.
So why mention all this? Well, I didn't think I'd be back on NPN any time soon, but here I am. I actually have tons of new work from this summer and fall, but it's not up on my site yet. This is one I took from a heli-in backpacking workshop I lead in Yukon's Arctic.
The Aurora here was captured in a single exposure at 12,500 ISO with absolutely no visible grain and very acceptable star details with my Nikon D800, after some noise reduction in RAW and post. The exposure was 1.5 seconds, which is needed for a rapidly changing and booming show like this. The foreground is a focus-stack of 4 images all at f/2.8, ISO 6400 and 2 minutes each. It ended up being so green because of all the reflected light being the only light source, I had to desaturate it about 60% just to look even a little natural to me! Obviously, I would have preferred a 1 second shot here too, but we don't have ISO 200,000 yet
See the larger version!
Comments
31 commentsI have one (very minor) suggestion. This may be completely pedantic, but the stream led my eye to a small clump of purple/blue rocks center left that drew my attention when I opened the larger frame. Perhaps they wouldn't have caught my attention if they were toned to match the rocks below them.
Besides my nitpicking suggestion, this is one of the most engaging compositions I've seen in a long time. Cheers.
Looking forward to November. ;)
As far as critique, the bottom does look a tad too dark and featureless. Maybe dodge it up a tad?
I might like it better with the greens in the water toned down a bit more. But having shot the Aurora under no moon I know just how green the foreground looks and can see that it's already been toned down quite a bit. So I know it's more realistic as is and I think it could work either way.
A slightly bigger nit for me is that a few parts of the Aurora seem a bit "hot" and are almost taking on a white color. It looks a little unnatural to me compared to the northern lights displays that I've seen. So I think I'd prefer those spots toned down and made a little more green to blend in more with the rest of the Aurora.
Planning on Baffin next year? That's one place I'd really really like to visit soon.
Grant, I can see your point but also I kinda feel like that would be like making the sun yellow, as those highlights are naturally really hot and I enjoyed the added color and tonal depth that came from letting them drift towards white. In all my previous Aurora renditions you'll notice I kept everything under more strict control but that can also lead to a rather 'muddy' feel with the low contrasts.
As for your photo, well... I've never seen an Aurora in person. This looks really fucking cool. Yeah, I see lots of noise reduction, I see dramatic brightening of the lights above, and I see room for opening the darker zones for print; but I see a compelling web presentation that grabs my attention, has me intrigued, and it bewilders in a good way the amazing qualities of nature. The "Aurora" genre of photos as of late is getting very competitive, but you have the talented knack for still creating a compelling image from the core rules of landscape photography "Near", "Middle", "Far".
aF
Also, btw, we have a great family life and it's neat because every time we spend together is extremely special and memorable. I'm spending almost equally as much time photographing this fall as I was planning previously, and being away was not the core reason for switching trips. My preference to do Norway next year because of a better moon cycle for photography and Alaska's mountains again this year because I'm addicted to it just made sense. And now I'll be back for time this month vs later, and it IS definitely hard to go 3 months or more out there at a time without visiting along the way. We often meet up at different locations all over to do cool stuff.
Nice article in OP BTW--i actually saw it in the Jackson Hole Library while killing some time waiting for the snow to end
Congratulations on the WP . . .
Congrats on the WP this is a fantastic image. Pretty much sums up what I had envisioned in my mind as a comp I wish to capture some day. As this photo's theme, I am green with envy here ;)
My grandfather was born in Lofoten, Norway... and there are park lands up there donated by my family. I definitely plan to visit there next year or so to finally see my homeland. Let me know if you want to meet up for at least part of the trip.
As for the family, the young years are so precious. For me, photography will always be there. There will always be great blooms, sunsets, AB storms, etc. 20 years from now, there is a good chance that you may look back and wish that you had been home more often. I could be wrong because every situation is different. Since photography is your primary source of income, you may need to spend more time away from home. Your hard drive is probably full enough for at least 5 years or more of processing marketable images. Hell, you could probably throw away your camera equipment right now and live of your portfolio for the rest of your life.
My advice to you is to make your primary focus on the marketing side and be able to stay home more with Galen and the family. You could really blow the pants off peter lik (name intentionally set to lower case)or Art Wolfe if you found the right connections.