During my stay here in Finland, the weather has been, shall I say, uncooperative… photographically, that is. The skiers are in heaven, since a lot of snow has fallen. However, for me the weather has been mostly overcast and snowy, limiting my photographic possibilities.
I’ve only had two days of decent or partially decent weather, but oh, were they grand! One evening the skies put on a show-of-shows. Right before dinner, starting at around 5:30 PM, a colleague and I rushed outside as the Aurora Borealis began to form. Here is …

This weekend I leave for a week-long assignment in Finland. I’ll mostly be in Lapland, but I’ll also have a couple of days in Helsinki, too. Despite winter temps around -15F in Lapland, I’m really looking forward to this trip. Crazy as it is, I love the frigid far north in winter. Its ethereal beauty is hard to explain and if you’re not into extreme cold it’s even harder to understand.
One of the things I have planned is a two-day dogsled safari. For those of you who have followed my …

We left Whitehorse, Yukon this morning under bright, sunny skies and were granted a glorious day driving the 8 hours to Dawson City, Yukon, the Gateway to the North. Of course, we stopped several times along the way for photographs. Fall is in full swing up north.
You can trace our route and stopping points on my SPOT interactive mapping site. For those of you who are curious, here is my SPOT GPS device standing on the dashboard. It sends out a signal about every 10 minutes to a satellite which, …

Tomorrow I leave again for Canada’s Yukon Territory, my second trip up there this year. When I visited in February the temperature was minus 40F, so I’m in hopes that this trip will be a bit warmer.
Those of you who read my blog know that I have a love affair with the Yukon, with its abundance of wildlife, mind-blowing scenics and friendly people. With a land mass 20% larger than California’s, the Yukon has 30,000 residents, compared to California’s 33,000,000. Since 24,000 of Yukon’s residents live in the capital …

It’s now official. After months of planning, I will be offering a photography workshop for the Nikonians Academy in the Yukon, a place I love dearly. The course will run from August 27th to September 4th, the absolutely most spectacular time of the year to be in Canada’s famed Yukon Territory.
http://www.nikoniansacademy.com/all/viewWorkshop.html?course_id=838
Late August is the drop-dead gorgeous Fall season in Yukon. We will begin our journey in Whitehorse, where the Yukon’s only international airport is located. After an orientation session we drive by commercial vans to Dawson City, site of the …

It’s the age-old debate among photographers: gloves vs. mittens. Which are best for the serious photographer, amateur or pro?
For most photographers, the choice is a matter of preference, since the overwhelming majority of enthusiasts shoot in warm or mildly cold temperatures. In those cases you can get away with a light glove, like the excellent wool gloves made by Lowepro that sport rubberized palms and fingers that give the photographer a good grip. I own a pair that I use through the Fall shooting season.

Many photographers I know prefer mittens, …

Once photographers find out that I travel to the Yukon and Arctic Circle, I’m invariably asked about photographing the Northern Lights, technically known as the Aurora borealis.
There are tons of articles and technical publications related to photographing these miraculous lights that magically appear in the far north at certain times of the year. They are caused by solar winds brushing by the earth’s magnetosphere. The most common color for the lights is green, but under certain conditions the lights can be orange, teal, purple or a combination of these.
Rather than …

As Robert Burns so ably said: “The best laid plans o’ mice of men, gang aft agley.” Or, as my dear mother used to say: ”Man plans and God laughs.”
So, my trip up the Dempster Highway to the Arctic Circle to photograph the Porcupine caribou herd is now up in smoke. More accurately it is down in snowflakes, as in a blizzard with 90 km/hour winds and whiteout conditions that was expected to last for days. Two winter storms converged right over the Arctic Circle in Yukon territory, making the …

Well, after two or three nights of stargazing, Richard Hartmier and I finally got a tiny glimpse of Aurora borealis activity. I say we only because we were out photographing together. Richard lives in the Yukon and has extensively photographed the Northern Lights. In fact, his Aurora work can be found in his books and in postcards sold in gift shops throughout the Yukon.
We were at Fish Lake, perhaps 15 minutes outside the city of Whitehorse (pop: 24,000). There were clouds in the sky, not aparticularly good thing when photographing …

So, right after I awoke to clear skies and no ice at all (see yesterday’s blog: http://blog.lesterpickerphoto.com/2011/01/31/delayed/), Air Canada managed to rebook me to Yukon so that I arrived pretty much the same day I was originally supposed to. I say “pretty much,” because I actually arrived in Yukon at 1:00 AM, but at least I was able to go out photographing with Richard Hartmier after a few hours sleep.
The downside of my rebooking was that I arrived in Whitehorse, Yukon safe and sound, but my luggage did not. Thirty-five …