Battle of the Ravens

A lucky shot of a couple of ravens battling over a tender morsel of food. These birds have to be the hardest ones to photograph in the north. The contrast between the absolute black of the ravens and the absolute white of the snow makes it almost impossible. This was the only half decent photo from a grouping of 50 and it still needed extensive Photoshop work. Still I like the action in the photo.

1960 Article About Cape Dorset Art

I came across an old article written in the Time's on February 22, 1960. You can read the article called Land of the Bear here.

According to the article there was only 320 Inuit (Eskimos in the article) living in Cape Dorset at that time and art is the main industry. One amusing part in the story was this line "In a land where a man can be killed by a glass of water thrown in his face ( it freezes in flight),..." Not true but if you were to get someone wet enough and then left them outside you could accomplish the dieing part. It will just take a bit longer.

It does tell the history of the print shop and tells the tragic story of one of the artist. It was surprising to learn that even 49 years ago there was concern over the affects of the white man on the traditional lives of the Inuit. Jim Houston says "Their art is the one thing that can preserve their pride in their Eskimo identity. So long as their art remains true and vital and coveted by the outside world, they will be saved from the hopeless apathy in the face of the onslaught of the almighty Kadluna [white man]. After they learn to cope with their new world, their art may die. All I ask is that it will then have served its purpose."

Take a few minutes to read this article from the past.

Pond Inlet

Some photos from my trip to Pond Inlet. Pond Inlet is known for having some of the best weather in Nunavut. Unfortunately both times I've been there the weather has been bad. I stayed at the Black Point Lodge Hotel for the first time and had an enjoyable stay. I didn't get out much during the day time hours because I was there to work so I snapped some quick photos during lunch. It was very cold and a persistent ice fog was present the whole time.

Mountains on the horizon poking out of the ice fog.

There was a lot of dog teams out on the ice in the distance.
The big zoom means I didn't have to walk all the way out to get a photo. You may call me lazy but I would have had to make this journey in the dark on unfamiliar land. Not going to happen.
Huge crack in the ice below the Lodge. You can see snow machine tracks along the edge of it for scale.
One of the nice things about a thick ice fog is you get a very fragile frost over everything.

A future photo frame.
The frost would break off if you breathed on it to hard.

First Blizzard

We had our first blizzard of the year for Cape Dorset on Sunday. Wasn't a bad one but Environment Canada says it's a blizzard then it's a blizzard. We stayed indoors today only wonder out long enough to take the photos below.

The vehicle Michele uses from the Hamlet.

I was able to snap a photo with the flash to attempt freezing the action. It gives a better representation of how hard it is to see in the middle of a blizzard.

Another view of the Hamlet.

Aura Borealis

The lights were out again last night. I have to adjust my settings a bit because I'm not getting the quality of photos I want. The two below were the best of the bunch.

The odd color comes from the Hamlet lights behind me.

This is my favorite. The lights on my snow machine aren't working properly so I only have one high beam meaning I can leave my machine running while taking photos. I flicked the high beam on for about one second during the exposure. I like the contrast it make with the green northern lights, reddish glow from the hamlet and the headlight. I was parked on Dead Dog Lake for both photos.

New Cape Dorset Blog

There is a new blogger in Cape Dorset. The blog name is Diary of a Mad(wo)man and is written by Desiree.

Just click on the link and head over and give her a warm welcome to the Nunavut blogsphere.

Thanks

*SIGH*

I got to work today and I missed turning to go around the building so I could easily turn into my favorite parking spot for the snowmobile. Now all I had to do was stop and put the machine in reverse and back into the spot. That of course is the easy way and what is the fun in that.
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So I decided to turn around and go the way that is more fun and gives me the excuse to spend more time driving the machine. Just in case you haven't read my previous post you should know that the Skido has had a lot of work done to it and when it was handed back to me repaired it came with a warning. The warning was to be careful driving the Skido because with the new skies, carbides and shocks it will turn really easy and if I do it to fast an accident could occur. I had quickly nodded at this and put my hand out for the keys.
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Now back to the present. Instead of gently rolling forward and then turning I just cut the skies and hit the gas way to hard. The end result was me putting the Skido on its side. My only injury was my wounded pride and the photo below shows what happened to my brand new windshield. At least it was a big piece.



*sigh*

A Quick Run.

Michele and I were out on a run today. Photo was taken on Malliqjuaq Island with Cape Dorset in the background. I'm wearing my fancy new snow pants. Hope to eventually have some action shots with me on the machine instead of someone else.

Matt's Snow Machine

Yaaaaaaaaaa.

My snowmobile is finally fixed. Nothing time and a $1000 couldn't fix. New skies, carbides, sliders, front and rear shocks were replaced tonight but the mid shock was fine and didn't need to be replaced. After going for a spin tonight the machine seems to be working like a new one. Turns on a dime and with the new shocks I can go back to doing donuts.

I will be out on a run this Sunday.

Now where did I put that helmet?

Dump Run

I do have some very nice photos of Venus and the Moon but I only photographed them in RAW format and can't get them converted into a file format that Blogger likes. Any help and I will post some photos.

Michele and I went on a dump run because we still don't have a garbage bin and it has to get there somehow. The crows were out in full force. Given the amount of unburned garbage and dog carcasses the eating looks good for them. Photo below only shows a small portion of the flock.

Once again we have an ice fog floating around town and with the sun still low in the sky it makes for some great atmospheric effects. Below is a photo of a sun pillar and an upper tangent arc. There were also some great sundogs but I was to busy being a tourist and forgot to run back into the house to get the camera before they were gone. Neither were accompanied by a 22deg halo.

I will be on duty travel this week so I probably won't get a chance to post until next weekend. I will see if I can get some nice photos from Pond Inlet. Hope the sun is up high enough.