Feb 23 2016 The Bluff on the Road to the Lab

As someone who lives in Toronto even though I have quite a short commute to work of about 15 minutes I still get annoyed by it. While I was at Alert in order to get out to the lab we had drive about 30 minutes from the station. This is a view along the way, I could get used to this commute.. It could be 2 hours long and I wouldn’t give a rats ass…

Feb 22 2016-An incredible sight

For some reason after a winter of very overcast skies, for the week I arrived it was mostly clear. Even more amazing the last full day I was there it was the full moon. You know how on those clear days when the full moon rises for about half an hour it is huge in the sky before it moves up higher and shrinks down? Well when the moon is full at Alert it rises like that and stays huge and just oscillates up and down across the horizon all day. It really does feel like you are on another planet where all the physics are different. On that day we also took a drive and visited the wreckage of a C-54 Skymaster aircraft that crashed in 1952 just sitting off to the side of the runway. All the crew of this crash survived and that seems all the more amazing when  you look and see what is left of it! An incredible piece of history just sitting there half buried under the snow, just highlighting the challenges of just being in a place like Alert.

Feb 22 2016-I love my Job

Yup the only way to get up to Alert is to go there for work. These were some of the views I got from the lab I was working in. Every time I went outside I looked around me I did a double take because these are the views that greeted me in every direction.

Feb 20 2016-Around the Station

One night while I was at Alert I went out for a walk around the station. These were some of my favorite shots.. What I really loved about this place was how quiet it was, there was no one around..everyone was inside because it was -35 C but it was just utterly quiet, I could not get enough of that. In the bottom picture I actually startled an Environment Canada tech who was coming back from releasing a weather balloon. That was him coming by on his snowmobile and he was not expecting me to be hanging out along the road.

Feb 18 2016-A look back at Alert

As you might notice here, this is near the runway at CFS Alert, looking back towards the station. It looks like it may be sunset but it is around 3pm in the afternoon and hasn’t been up yet this year. I don’t know who built this inukshuk but it certainly makes a fitting sentinel looking out from the station over the vast ice of Arctic ocean.

Feb 18 2016-A Very Special Place

I came to this place on the afternoon after I arrived at Alert. It is difficult to describe how amazing this place is, It felt as though I left my home in Ontario and stepped out onto another planet. First that is the ice covered Arctic Ocean you are seeing out there and that is certainly not the sun. The sun was not due to rise in Alert for another 10 days, so what I got while I was there during “normal” daylight hours was twilight, which frankly is a photographers dream.. Here where I was standing when I took this picture is something else entirely. A crazy thing about this spot is that while I was taking this picture unless there was someone flying over the North Pole in an aircraft I was probably the northernmost person on earth for a few minutes. Much more importantly  though what you can’t see from this picture is that about 10 feet to my left were the graves of 9 Canadian servicemen who died in a RCAF Lancaster 965 that crashed near Alert in 1950. Through the graves you could see that some arctic wolves had walked by not so very long ago. I did not take any pictures of the graves as I did not think any photograph I could take could do them the justice they deserved. I read their names, looked around and heard the silence around me, it was one of those moments that I will never forget and is impossible to describe.

Feb 17 2016-Streets of Thule, Greenland

So one thing I did not realize on my road to CFS Alert in Nunavut is that there is usually a stop over in Thule, Greenland for the night. I have to admit I was just excessively excited just to be able to say I have been to Greenland. Now after I have been there I am extremely determined that I will go back to explore once again..

Nov 29 2015-A Closer Look

On Nov 29th I went back to an old favorite place called the Cold Creek Conservation area and managed to arrive before the morning frost had gone. These are a few of the pictures I captured.

February 2015 Scientific Winter Wonderland

I know I haven’t posted for a while , It seems I needed a break for a while but I also found I needed to post about this. A few weeks ago I got a chance to go to a truly special place in Canada. My work took me to the Experimental Lakes Area near Kenora Ontario. In case you do not know of it, it is a unique research facility consisting of 52 isolated lakes that has allowed scientists to study ecosystem wide effects of various pollutants whereas most studies focus on Isolated and small scale effects. There is no other research facility like it in the world.. While it is unique it is also an incredibly beautiful place to walk around.

March 2 2014 Winter of the Decade

I regret that I have not posted very much in the past 2 months. My life has been rather hectic readjusting to life in the big city that I seem to have allowed my photography to fall by the wayside. I suppose that is understandable but I do not like it. So to get back into it here are a few pictures of my wanderings around this winter so far. It has been a winter to remember that is for sure. Though I am hearing so many people say that they are ready for this winter to be over but I don’t know, I don’t like wishing away time and besides it is rather beautiful I think even on the cloudy days.