Damn that Richard Hartmier! Those of you who read my blog know how much I like and admire Richard, a friend and very capable pro photographer from the Yukon (you’ve got to be capable to make a living as a photographer in the Yukon). But, damn him all the same!
Richard managed to capture this incredible Northern Lights image just a few miles from his home in Whitehorse. Folks, this is only mid-August and it’s rare to get Northern Lights this early. But the lights are at an 11-year peak from …

I leave tomorrow for a 16-day photo exploration of Iceland. I’ll be accompanied by my good friend and fellow professional photographer, the curmudgeonly Richard Hartmier, of Yukon Territory, Canada. We have a 4-wheel vehicle reserved, but not even one place to lodge. Our plan is to rent some sleeping bags, a propane stove for coffee in the morning, a cooler for some food, and just take off for wherever our cameras point.  If we end up in one place for a few days we’ll book into a hotel or B&B, …

Today my 5th visit to the Yukon is over. After 24 days in this majestic land, I’m heading home on Air Canada on a route that has by now become familiar to me. I’ll process some photos, write a bit, read a good novel (right now I’m reading Eventide, the sequel to the acclaimed Plainsong by Kent Haruf)), and begin thinking about my next visit.
Take Our Workshop!
Which brings up an interesting point. Richard Hartmier (www.hartmier.com)  and I are planning a photo tour of the Yukon next summer, stretching over the …

There are good days and there are bad days. And then there are days like today.
The day started out poorly, as inclement weather kept us grounded until just before lunch. The skies began to clear and we sailed north along the Dempster Highway, tracking reports of grizzly bear sightings near the border with North West Territory. Along the way we stopped for some landscape images right at the Arctic Circle (click on the images to enlarge).

Proceeding north from there, we didn’t have to wait long before we sighted a gorgeous …

Well, today has been a l-o-n-g day of photography. Richard Hartmier and I spent the night at the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City, had a 6:00 AM breakfast and were on the road before 7 in order to get to a beaver pond by 8:30 to record their winter preparations before they went to sleep for the day.
Frustrations
That’s when we encountered our first frustration. The pond was lightly frozen over (remember, today is August 31!) with a few small holes indicating where the beavers had recently surfaced, but there were …

I’m back in Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon Territory, recharging my batteries, cleaning my equipment, doing laundry and running assorted errands before leaving for the Dempster Highway again to photograph the Fall colors and Northern Lights (hopefully). I thought it would be good to review with you the past week’s photo shoot and some things I learned from the experience.
For those of you following my progress on my interactive SPOT geo-tracking page, it will be inactive for the next two days. On Tuesday, my fellow photographer, Richard Hartmier and I …

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 …

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 …

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 …