Hello from the NWT of Canada

[shoot6x7]

Was an avid watcher of "Ice Pilots"', documenting the going on's at Buffalo Airways based in Yellowknife and Hay river. A beautiful place ....

 

[NWT Ron]

Re: Ice Pilots

that's where I work, until something less stressful comes up, I retire, or expire, whichever happens first :0

Ron

 

[fotch]

Hello and welcome to APUG.

 

[Black Dog]

Hello and welcome to APUGland-nice to have you with us!

 

[NWT Ron]

Thanks for the welcome. "Been everywhere" Black dog? Probably not this far north. There are some interesting photo opportunities here that the tourists don't usually notice. Here are a couple of examples: 1) hoar frost collected on anything that sticks out of the ground that isn't warm, it gets so thick it puts some of the scenes of the Narnia movie to shame, but you really need to see it during the few hours of daily winter daylight, and 2) the pillars of light over almost any light source that radiates vertically when we're experiencing ice crystals. I could go on, the colourful rainbows around shadows in the snow on really cold days, or the effects of "ice fog", one that might bother me if I think of it while I'm out there would be photographing the deep cracks in the ice on the ice roads where the ice is over 2 metres thick and its so clear that you wouldn't know if you were seeing clear through it (on a cold quiet night you can hear the ice cracking). Well, that's just a start. I'm glad I found most of my old gear.

Ron

Ron

 

[Sirius Glass]

I skied in ice fog several times at Sunshine in Banff. Very impressive.

 

[Jeff L]

Hi Ron,
I have flown Buffalo about a half dozen times. Last time I had my Rollei with me that was approx the same age as the DC3. Fantastic!

 

[shoot6x7]

Re: Ice Pilots

that's where I work, until something less stressful comes up, I retire, or expire, whichever happens first :0

Ron

Cool, hopefully you get to work with Mikey and Rod, and less with Buffalo Joe. After so many seasons I miss hearing about the crew at Buffalo. Looks a tough place for all those rampie trainee pilots.

 

[NWT Ron]

Hi Jeff,

I think that we may be the last regular scheduled DC3 passenger operation in North America, still doing the Hay River run six times a week. If you return let me know.

Well designed mechanical things, whether they're aircraft or cameras, could go as long as someone has or makes parts for them.

Ron

 

[Xmas]

Thanks for the welcome. "Been everywhere" Black dog? Probably not this far north. There are some interesting photo opportunities here that the tourists don't usually notice. Here are a couple of examples: 1) hoar frost collected on anything that sticks out of the ground that isn't warm, it gets so thick it puts some of the scenes of the Narnia movie to shame, but you really need to see it during the few hours of daily winter daylight, and 2) the pillars of light over almost any light source that radiates vertically when we're experiencing ice crystals. I could go on, the colourful rainbows around shadows in the snow on really cold days, or the effects of "ice fog", one that might bother me if I think of it while I'm out there would be photographing the deep cracks in the ice on the ice roads where the ice is over 2 metres thick and its so clear that you wouldn't know if you were seeing clear through it (on a cold quiet night you can hear the ice cracking). Well, that's just a start. I'm glad I found most of my old gear.

Ron

Ron

And aurora

 

[NWT Ron]

Every tourist hopes to shoot aurora. To many of them it comes as a surprise that when its very active you cannot see aurora from here, or its on the southern (not northern) horizon because we're often inside the "auroral oval". Personally I think there are many other photo shots unique to our cold climate that get overlooked. How about pitch black ravens with frost on their heads from the condensation of their own breath? The hoar frost is one of my favourites, and last night as I thought about it I was wondering if cracks deep into the ice could be illuminated with a laser and photographed. One doesn't know where to start, its like an alien world here in winter.

Ron

 

[Xmas]

Your XYL has diamonds on the soles of her shoes?

Noel

 

[adelorenzo]

Hi Ron and welcome to the site, I'm across the border here in the Yukon.

I second Matt's recommendation for Beau Photo in Vancouver I've been ordering from them for a few years.

 

[NWT Ron]

Thanks, on Friday I placed an order with them for an inexpensive (Lubitel 166B) camera for my vacation. I get a little uncomfortable shopping at a store that deals in high end expensive gear, but they were alright to deal with.

 

[Xmas]

Thanks, on Friday I placed an order with them for an inexpensive (Lubitel 166B) camera for my vacation. I get a little uncomfortable shopping at a store that deals in high end expensive gear, but they were alright to deal with.

They need a lens hood and the bottom of the interior covered with a flock material.
Otherwise they are good but slow.

 

[NWT Ron]

Thanks for the tip, either I could try to find a lens hood, or maybe make one. When it arrives I'll see what I can do for the interior bottom. It seemed like a reasonable camera for the price. I have a water damaged Flexaret that I'd like to clean up and repair if possible, another winter project maybe. When I get around to camera repairs I'll probably post something on the appropriate forum. My Koni-Omega Rapid M needs a light gasket too, the one on the camera body just forward of the dark slide, maybe an early winter project.

 

[hudson]

Personally I think there are many other photo shots unique to our cold climate that get overlooked. How about pitch black ravens with frost on their heads from the condensation of their own breath?

When I was by Lake Champlain during the winter, I was very impressed by the water that splashed out of the lake forming ice that would cover the plants on shore...never seen anything like it before.

 

[NWT Ron]

It was a bit of a media thing a couple of years ago, people discovering that in extremely cold dry air if you threw a mug of boiling hot water in the air it would evaporate before hitting the ground. Then there were the other videos, of people screwing it up and throwing boiling hot water onto someone, or themselves.

The hoar frost accumulations here in January and February are quite a site too, and stick around for a week or two. We don't have open water as you mentioned around Lake Champlain for very long, things freeze pretty quick. But I have seen it before I moved here, and when we lived in New Brunswick years ago I saw snow rollers in farm fields.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I understand that at -40 degrees C or F [because the number is the same] or lower, if one throws a pan of water in the air, the water freezes with a loud crack before it hits the ground. I am thinking that one might want to go inside before relieving onesself in such conditions. I have not had the opportunity to test this phenomenon myself.

 

[NWT Ron]

I haven't verified that one myself, don't think I will But I have gone outside after washing my hair and had it freeze hard like a helmet :-(

 

[NWT Ron]

And here are a couple more, when its cold enough an extension cord (not the ones for the cold that we use here) will become rigid like a wooden stick. Clothing that is wet freezes hard. And once I was adding oil (not synthetic) to my engine and spilled a drop, I picked it up off the ground - it had the consistency of a jelly bean. Many plastic things shatter easily, and stone chips in your windshield will quickly turn into long cracks when the hot air from the defroster is applied. Moisture from your own breath freezes to any facial hair, car suspensions feel like they're welded, car seats are extra firm (unless they're heated), well the list goes on. And no its not true, it does not get too cold to snow.

 

[Sirius Glass]

While skiing I have had my breath freeze on my beard and build a hard shell. The shell protects the face from the cold and gets warm and wet inside the shell. The warmer the inside of the shell gets, the thicker the shell gets. I have had that a few times in the US, it definitely happened in Whister-Blackcomb, Banff, Lake Louise, Fernie, Big White and Silver Star.

 

[NWT Ron]

All very nice places, with great views. Our Canada Goose jackets have hoods trimmed with coyote fur, which I've heard is less prone to frosting up. Our jackets are ten years old, before they started making them lighter for the southern market. Even now I don't use it as much when we have a milder winter, but that's another subject.

 

[adelorenzo]

My favorite thing about shooting in the winter North of 60 is you get beautiful, low angle light almost all day. Plus you don't have to get up early! In fact, I can shoot golden hour on my lunch break during December or January.

That and the ice fog...


Ice Fog, Yukon River, Whitehorse by Dead Link Removed, on Flickr

 

[NWT Ron]

I like the photo, I'd so much like to get started on 4X5.

At noon today I got the news, we have one less aircraft in the fleet. Fortunately the crew of four walked away from it.