NORTHERN LIGHTS & POLAR BEARS

Inukshuk, Trail symbol

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 7th.,  was a quiet day in Churchill. We slept in, and then relaxed until Mark, our leader, came over to discuss settings for polar bear shooting and Northern Lights settings and equipment.
In the afternoon we went off to the grocery to get nibbles and stuff for on the tundra buggies, etc. As there was a break in the clouds we were off to photograph sunset as the sun was going to come out from the overcast. We got some good photos of the inushkuk with late light on it.




We had received an invitation from Blue Sky B&B and Dog Sledding to go out to their hut where they keep their dogs, for Northern Light Photography. We got dressed for the weather and then we were off. They were very generous in allowing us to use there facilities to wait for the Lights to appear. This included some cranberry brownies. (We do have a few of our group staying at the B&B.) As you can see we had some fairly good opportunities to capture the light. The Canon 7D held up to the challenge and the Tokina 11-16mm. lens worked very well. By being out at the sledding site we were away from the Bay and the clouds did not come in as far. All this made for a long night, and a short night of sleeping. By the time we got back to the B&B  it was about 1130. We then had to load our new bean bags with sunflower seeds for the next day. To bed about 0100. Reveille will be at 0530.
 

What is with the Camera?

Better Side?

THURSDAY, Nov. 8th: Breakfast was at 0600 as we needed to be ready by 0645 for pick up. The breakfast included fresh home made apple pie.  We were dressed and ready! We were off for our first day of polar bear photography.The weather today was quite miserable - overcast, snowing, and lots of blowing snow. The snow most of the time was blowing horizontally!! As you can see it was not a good day to be out and about, especially for those of us from Southern California! We were quite snug

Yawning Bear

in the heated buggy, but when we opened the windows for photography, it was quite blustery and at times quite miserable. The bears thought so too, as we saw probably only eight to ten bears total. As you can see from the photos it was a time to hunker down out of the wind most of the time. We did have a few ops and I tried to include the environment in the photos I chose for the blog. The snow blowing into your face was quite a miserable experience even for those from the northern central part of the U.S. who experience this weather regularly through the winter.

A bonus for us is that we have the same driver, J.P., as we had four years ago. Mark has maintained a connection with him over the years. We will have him for all four days on the Buggies to photograph the bears. Today we lucked out and had a 40 passenger buggy. We are booked for a 26 passenger buggy each day. This made it quite easy for all seventeen of us to get good positioning. We do have a few of us who are short and a few who are quite a bit taller so hopefully all will work out. The group seems to be quite compatible, so I believe that we will all get good photographs and opportunities.

I am trying to stay healthy and cold free. Lin has come down with a cold and good cough and another of the group has developed symptoms. I may be on the border, so I am going to close and be off to bed.

I wish to apologize about some of the layout here. This is my first blog and it is a work in progress.
Regrettably I do not have time to really delve into the layout process as this is being done on the wing so to speak. So you have to bear with me.

Enjoy the experience, because that is what I am doing.