It’s so easy to get caught inside during the dark season in the north. Then, once you’re used to all the tv shows and junk food that makes you fat, the sun comes out. You may try to go outside, but the shock of the cold is so intense that you just rush from place to place hoping to avoid the inevitable frostbite.

BUT…

…every now and then something will happen to get you outside.

This week I actually got out to take some pictures of the beautiful community in which I live. Sure, the temperature was about -40C to -50C the whole time, but it was still nice (just avoid the metal-rimmed sunglasses).

Just beautiful. And some more…

Now, one might ask, “Tara, why did you decide to risk your face and fingers to gets some shots?” Well, I think the answer is as simple as sharing my beautiful view with the people who have questioned why I am here in the first place.

Last night, around midnight, my friend Sarah and I got our camera bags and tripods, then headed out behind my place. Taking pictures of the Northern Lights is so amazing, but I could never do it before; I needed someone to help me with my camera settings. After everything is clicked to the right setting, you point, shoot, and wait – quite awhile – for the shutter to close. What follows is my first foray into night photography…

And, ta-da! I’m hoping to get back into blogging a bit more, but these pics will have to sate your hunger for entries right about now.

Final Thought: Go out and enjoy your day…it’s taken me awhile to learn that.

Owning a dog, any dog, is rife with its advantages and disadvantages. Small dogs can curl up on your stomach and are easy to travel with (advantage), yet they have delicate bones and nervous personalities (disadvantage). Big dogs can accompany you out on the land and are usually good with kids (advantage), yet need to be taken out and walked more (disadvantage). I mention this because of an awesome experience I just had and, if it weren’t for having to drag Sophie out to pee, I would never have been outside.

I was just telling a friend that seeing the Northern Lights up here is pretty common. Most of the time, though, they are just brief splashes of pale green or white which could be mistaken for a cloud (if you could see clouds at night). Nothing too spectacular. This, of course, isn’t always true. On occasion you can get completely blown away.

Tonight when I first headed out there was the characteristic ‘bat signal’ shooting up from the mountain across the field…not an entirely new sight. However, as Sophie ran and did her dog thing, I just watched the lights grow and spread until the sky was completely lit up. There was the typical ‘smoke signal’ thing bursting from the apex of the mountain which moved just enough to allow you to imagine some sort of mythical campfire. The rest of the sky looked like a star-studded leather shoe which was cracking at its seams…like knives slicing through blackness…letting the various shades of the crazy spectrum peek through.

Last year in Pang. I had to stand like this for about 10-15 seconds to get the lights in...not as easy as it sounds!

Last year, in Pangnirtung, there were often spectacular nights; I often saw the ‘bat signal’ and its accompanying dancing ribbons. In fact, a friend used to go out often to try capturing that perfect picture. I would love to be able to do that, but you need a pretty amazing camera – with a tripod – to do it. These next pictures were taken by Sarah McMahon in Pang… (note: my face is blurry because my eyeballs would have dried into flaky puffballs if I didn’t blink a few times!)

This one's my favorite...

Anyway, the lights here seem different…or at least they were tonight. The overwhelming sense I got in Pang was that I was in some sort of midnight rhythmic gymnastic tournament – the lights curled and flowed just like one of those ribbons. The ones tonight reminded me of the tip of a flame. If you look closely, the edge is a different colour and you can see how the difference in temperature actually makes the air currents run in a different way.

Tonight, the lights were like flames…green at the base, then moving to pale blue with just a wee hint of pink at the ends. Very cool. It looked like a fire in a breeze; a candle the moment before it snuffs out.

So thank you, to the dog, who pried me away from this computer to see the sights.