Joy

From the series Clarkson’s Farm, the sheer joy the cows experienced being let back into a grassy field after a winter in the barn, and Jeremy’s love of that joy, remind me so much of the times like this night.

An old friend, whom I met in Whitehorse a few years ago when he booked a daytrip with me to Kluane National Park, had now arrived in Yellowknife and before setting off on his own to explore other parts of the territory, had a night aurora chasing with me in Yellowknife first.

For his truly limitless joy photographing the beauty-sigh inducing scenery around the Yukon, it was almost nothing compared to the sheer joy of this night under the aurora.

A lot of nights, still, I feel more like the cows running freely out of the trailer back into the fields after a winter indoors, but there are a few nights where I get to take a little step back into my own bliss, be Jeremy, and just watch the overwhelming joy in others and it’s something I cherish a lot.

Seeing it coming

Our night started early, but with more beauty to the camera than to the naked eye. I was desperately hoping for the aurora earlier in the night than later. Heavier cloud was forecast to be on the way and it’s direction closed off our options pretty early. We saw the clear sky over us become eaten up by cloud while still waiting on the aurora to break through, but sometimes staying put and patient is the best way forward.

“We are so lucky now. It became clear again just in time. Perfect perfect.”

I was in touch with another guide a ways through the night and we confirmed our locations with each other, seeking more favourable weather, but the truth is, we probably couldn’t have been more lucky.

The sky cleared up above us and the aurora danced and danced. It was as beautiful to stop and watch as it was to continue to photograph. I loved the clouds, the colours, the scale, and the feeling of magic being in the right place at the right time.

Breaking from endlessly clear

When I open Environment Canada’s app every day, and the next 7 nights show just clear with overnight temperatures somewhere in the -30s, it does feel like it’s never going to end. But I try not to take it for granted. Nothing is forever.

So after weeks of near perfect weather every night beginning from the middle of February, a few messy nights varying between partly cloudy and mostly cloudy were now on the immediate horizon.

There’s always some room for flexibility in these kinds of nights, and we took full advantage - leaving earlier or travelling out from town further. And on both nights, we were lucky to keep ourselves in good weather where we were met with beautiful, beautiful shows from the aurora. Clear skies held, and clouds held back for just long enough. It was just what we needed and it humbly felt very, very lucky.

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Savouring the simple

For these couple nights, the weather was still very good, but did require conscious decisions to drive us away from looming cloud. We were soon warming up into the -20s, which as is tradition, brings a little more scattered cloud. However it was nothing to be so stressed out over, not yet anyway. And with tax season officially upon us, there’s more than enough stress to go around without bringing distant cloud banks unnecessarily into things.

So before more cloudy skies began rolling through over the next several nights, we savoured our time at some favourite locations on ice roads.

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Very luckily, a fireball!

A sight for sore eyes

After just the night before being out until almost 4am, this was a sight for the sorest of eyes.

We were already on our way out of town early, and before we could get too far, we made an abrupt stop at a small pullout just off the Ingraham Trail. Within just some seconds, the sky began to light up and dance. The aurora took over the entire sky. It was literally breathtaking.

You’ll never hear me ‘rate’ a night or compare nights, but this was overwhelming, even for me. I didn’t know where to look, where to photograph, how to absorb every moment of it. It was magic. It really just felt like magic.

And after the half hour or so show, I just couldn’t get over how different night to night this experience could be. It is just the best.