The rare Arctic Hedgehog

For our Southern friends, a snap that was forwarded to me of the rare and elusive Arctic hedgehog.

Frozen North

Terry returned yesterday from Lac de Gras. He had hoped to paddle from there up the Coppermine River to Kugluktuk. While the ice had broken there several weeks ago, the headwater of the river at Lac de Gras was still frozen solid yesterday. Sheets of ice still floated on the lake. While Terry had thoughts of waiting for the river to open, demands in the south saw him return by float plane.

While disappointed at not travelling the Coppermine, Terry took the positive view that he did get the best part of a month on the Barrens.

If you look at the Yellowknife tourist boosters sites, they tell you that Yellowknife is the sunniest city in Canada. We awoke today to the appearance of more rain. I'm reminded of a Toronto photographer who went to Arizona to do a car shoot.

The agency booked an entire week to allow for rain days although the spot chosen was the driest in the U.S. It even had a local car detailing crew that did nothing but automobile shoots. Rained very day, except for the day they flew out.

The Government of Canada closed down the Yellowknife weather office. We get our weather from Edmonton. Given the frequency the Environment Canada weather page changes for Yellowknife, it would appear they are hindcasting rather than forecasting. The best forecaster we have is one of the reno crew who fished the Gulf of St. Lawrence for many years. His glance at the sky is more accurate than professional meteorologists.

There are a number of disturbing signs that you are ageing. It gets harder to get out of the car after a long drive, cops are young enough to be your offspring. Therefore it was quite disturbing to have a friend write, after I had posted the nudes, and ask to see pics of the renos. You know you are getting ancient when your acquaintances prefer to see pics of house framing rather than attractive young ladies.

It seems everybody in Yellowknife has owned, lived in or worked on this place. Originally a 1967 trailer, there have been several additions so that with our extension, all that remains of the original trailer is this bit of the kitchen. It had at best, an R7.5 rating for an Arctic winter.

Yellowknife Notes

Hound is barking at Jenny as she comes to visit and view the in progress renos. Great watchdog but it would be excellent, and quieter, if she could distinguish friend from foe.

So the latest project, apart from the ongoing renos, is

Yellowknife Nudes

While I have shot B&W studio nudes for some time, there is something about the landscape in the North, at least in the summer, that attracted me to attempt a nudes in landscape here. While I have been heavily influenced by Edward Weston and Bill Brandt, it was a concept of trying to combine the abstracts the landscape offer with the human figure.

Haven't the fainest idea where it is going to go.

I'm not overly fond of the vast majority of nudes in landscapes one sees on the net. Much of what passes for 'art nudes' used to be called for what it is, a bit of T & A.

I'm also in some doubt about digital imaging. Don't get me wrong, I like it, wouldn't go back, but it feels like something is missing. It is, I suspect, the mental process. I was showing a neighbour, a local artist, how easy it was to convert a RAW image to a wide variety of styles using presets in Adobe Lightroom. Selenium toning? Bam! Sepia? A fraction of a second. Velvia, Kodachrome, or Ektachrome emulation? Instantly!

The problem I think I have with digital imaging is it seems to take away the pre-image contemplation. You were governed, by a greater degree, though the whole process by what you desired as an end result. To need repeat a shot could be a lot of work. Last winter we had a youth photo component to the Arctic Winter Games 2008. Pat Kane, the photo editor at Uphere magazine, had the youngsters shoot everything manually. Their work improved immediately.

Technology is an old argument. When I was a student in the 70's, David Bailey was quoted in an interview that the 35mm camera was going to ruin photography as young people weren't learning the fundamentals of photography with large format cameras.

Anyway, to get back to the point...

A gutsy model this woman. While all of Canada has been complaining about the rather cold dismal summer so far, here in the North, where summer is short, it most certainly hasn't been sweet. The summer seems to have arrived last Friday but this was shot before them. It was about 16C that day.

Now these are just work prints. With eight months of winter here there is more than enough time to play with Lightroom and Photoshop when the outside temperatures fall lower than most normal North American thermometers go which is -40C.

There is a subtlety I hope to achieve. Perhaps Lightroom and Photoshop will answer.

However, if you are in Yellowknife and would like to model, let me know. I do pay a fee, I'm not GWC. (Guy With a Camera) Yes, it is a small town but as you can see, for this reason, I do preserve anonymity. Unfortunately the both models I did have elected to head south for other adventures. It is the bane of Yellowknife life, particularly with the younger people, by the time you get to know them they leave for other things.

Out rhubarb has been trod down by the builders. Our neighbour says we can harvest hers as she is on an extended vacation.