Free Ukraine

As the world knows by now, months and years of rumbling has broken into full-out war in the Ukraine. Every day, the infrastructure of instant communications has brought a tsunami of powerful stories and images direct from the front lines, which like most wars now seem to be everywhere.
Canada has the highest amount of Ukrainian people living anywhere outside that country or Russia, and that community’s history runs very deep in Winnipeg, home of the fabled North End and adopted home to generations of Ukrainians. It is perhaps because of this that a rally held yesterday to offer support drew so many people and evoked such emotion.
I knew I had to bring a camera to this event, and with the privilege of not having a deadline (or, more to the point, an outlet) for my images I decided to use a few film cameras, in the hopes of bringing a different mindset to bear and overriding my ingrained newspaper-photography pattern.

A reminder to anyone wanting to help the civilians in this unfolding catastrophe, donations to the Red Cross will be matched by the Canadian government — a great way to make your money go farther!

Susan Boulter tears up while listening to the Ukrainian anthem, during a rally in Winnipeg, Canada Saturday February 26, 2022. Boulter has family in western Ukraine struggling to escape the country during a Russian invasion.

This year has seen a lot of opportunities to look up and find a picture, or just a sense of wonder (usually both, for me). Whether it’s been the Aurora Borealis or meteor showers or spectacular sundogs there are so many opportunities in 2021, and I’ve probably photographed the sky more in the past 6 months than I have in the past 6 years.

Part of that is from the pandemic erasing many of the people-centred photography I was doing previously. A lot of it is freeing up more time to be able to wander and wonder and focus on the natural environment.

I’ve seen a lot of Milky Way photographs this year, and it fired up the desire to do it again myself. The one and only time I’d photographed our galaxy was a few years ago during an epic night at a dark sky preserve, in Cape St. Mary bird sanctuary in Newfoundland. This weekend, a night with a new moon (preventing any light pollution from obscuring faint stars), a clear cloudless night and no work commitments the next day meant the time was right to try again!

A quick online search for dark sky areas in Manitoba turned up Spruce Woods Provincial Park. I knew of this park for its near-desert conditions and sand dunes, but wasn’t aware of its status among sky-watchers. Despite the 2-hour drive (each way) all doubts were erased the second I got out of my car and looked up. The star-scape was absolutely breath-taking! There really is no substitute for a complete lack of light pollution — the best camera, lenses or software won’t make up for the night sky being obscured.

This really is the most vital step — finding as dark a sky as possible. This can be as simple as a quick Google search, but don’t think that a quick half-hour drive away from a city will do it — if you’re photographing infinity a few kilometres won’t change a thing. Prep yourself for a few hours drive, and keep in mind that light pollution can also come from the sun. Depending on the time of the year, ‘true’ night won’t come until well after sundown and well before sunrise. (Right about now, true night comes after midnight until about 3 a.m., with the pictures you see here being taken from 1-2 a.m.)

A wide angle lens to cover a great expanse of sky is a must, but equally important is how much light it can gather. An aperture of f/1.4 or f/2 is ideal and help prevent the need to crank up your ISO to noisy extremes.
Don’t forget the flipside to your aperture: your shutter speed. A wider aperture allows a ‘faster’ shutter speed. Anything longer than about 25 seconds will introduce ‘trailing’ to the stars, from the earth’s rotation. So, try keep your time to about 20 seconds maximum.

If you’re curious to try your hand at photographing our galaxy, a little time spent researching ahead of time will save you a lot longer time dealing with potentially serious problems in the field later. Find a dark sky area and prepare yourself for working there in total darkness! Things like bug spray, a flashlight (having a red filter or red light will help you see but not ruin your night vision) and measures to stay safe among wildlife, if applicable (for example, keeping safe among black bear populations is a common issue in Manitoba parks) will go a long way to having a positive experience.

Good luck! Look up in wonder!

The Milky Way rises in the south sky above Marsh Lake, in Manitoba’s Spruce Woods Provincial Park. Adding a foreground element can add visual interest to your composition, and a very valuable sense of perspective.

A horizontal composition - and let’s be honest, a lot of luck in timing - allowed me to include some of the many fireflies blinking in the air around me during this photo session. A long 20-second exposure recorded them as the green wavy lines to the right.

I turned my camera away from the south, where the Milky Way was, towards the east where the earthly elements made a pleasing (to my eye) composition. I liked seeing the vast fields of stars and the different mood this represented. There is almost no enhancement to the colour balance on this and all shots presented here.

This slightly-surreal scene is an example of thinking and acting quickly to the unexpected during a photo shoot. Despite the late hour (2 a.m.) the occasional car drove past on a nearby road, and I noticed that when they did, their headlights lit up a few trees along this marshy lake. When I heard another car approach far off in the distance, I knew this lighting would repeat itself — sure enough, once I set my camera to this view the trees slowly lit up with a ghostly light and my timing ensured the actual car and headlights hadn’t intruded onto the scene yet. The result was an ambiguous scene with a vague sense of mystery — a picture of a mood or a feeling more than what was actually there.

The hot new activity of late winter/early spring in Manitoba (for better or worse) is aurora-spotting, thanks to an upswing in solar activity. The Northern Lights are notoriously fickle — one night they appear, the next they don’t and there’s no set time when they ‘usually’ show up. Forecasting is vague, but maybe it’s all these factors that make it so magical when it finally does appear before your eyes.

True to their name, the further north you go the more visible they become. Near the capital city down south, they are usually a glowing line on the horizon, but occasionally the output from solar flares or sunspots is high enough that shimmering bands of green and violet can appear overhead. Regardless, moving as far from city lights and its attendant light pollution will only make it easier to see, with the happy benefit of seeing just how many stars do fill the inky black night sky.
Happily, the regular cycle of our sun is tracking upwards, so the months ahead should give more opportunities to see (and photograph) them yourself.

On that note, these images were made with a DSLR and a wide angle (24mm) lens, wide open at f/1.4 and 20 seconds. Depending on your focal length, any longer than 20-25 seconds and you’ll start to have the stars ‘trail’ or blur from the rotation of the Earth. Some photographers crank up their ISO to 6400 or above in order to get much shorter exposure times, or because their lenses don’t open up past f/2.8 or higher — that’s a (somewhat) viable option now that digital sensors are so much better, but I prefer to keep my ISO as low as possible.
Also keep in mind that ‘infinity’ focus on your lens doesn’t actually focus on infinity! Simply turning your lens all the way to the infinity setting will result in blurry stars. If you have Live View on your camera, turn it on, zoom in on a bright star and manually focus your lens until it’s sharp, then leave your focus where it is and shoot away.

Good luck!

The aurora borealis dances in the sky above the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg.

The red flashlight from a head lamp of fellow photographer leaves a trail during a long exposure. Red lights are used for night photography because they don’t ruin the photographer’s night vision.

A few aurora spotters watch silently beneath the lights, with the lights of nearby small towns and farms on the horizon.

I had thought the aurora had died down for the night, and was driving home when one look through my rear-view mirror showed they had flared back up again. Did I mention the Northern Lights are fickle and unpredictable?

Star trails made using the StarStax app (see previous blog post for details on the app).

Light Into Dark At Portage & Main

There are always impressive light displays on various homes this time of year - it’s a great way to overcome the much shorter daylight hours and put a bit of cheer into the cold of December - but it would be hard to top the show on this weekend at Winnipeg’s famed Portage & Main intersection.

The Fairmont Winnipeg hotel transformed its frontage into a multi-story Christmas tree - a photographer’s delight not only for the scale but also a welcome mild weekend left temperatures high enough to work comfortably with some night photography to capture it.

Also present nearby was a message of hope, literally, spelled out for all to see atop a downtown condo. I’ve actually seen this on a few other residential decorations too this week.

It’s been a rough year for many of us but it’s a lot of individual efforts like this that will, I think, turn things in a positive way for the most people.

Living, and working, with purpose

Between social media, and how ubiquitous it’s become in our lives, and the isolation (physical and otherwise) of the Covid era, it’s increasingly common to know people and somehow never actually meet them.


This was the case with Oly Backstrom, whom I knew on Twitter but never met face-to-face. Happily that changed this weekend when we met in Winnipeg’s Exchange District. Gifted with a warm autumn day and a well-spaced patio we talked about my photography and his work with SCE Lifeworks, who dedicate themselves to helping connect employers with candidates with intellectual disabilities.

It’s noble work, and it reminded me that a life with meaning and purpose is one of the greatest gifts you can give a person. Oly is a person who can be proud to say what he does for a living, and know it’s meaningful work. Good to finally make it ‘real’, Oly!

A changed city

Like most photographers, I’ve had almost all previously scheduled work vanish, almost overnight. While there has been much more time spent at home, I do go out — keeping the recommended distance from others, not touching any surfaces if at all possible and cleaning myself and my gear thoroughly before and after — with a camera. This is an extraordinary time and there is a need to portray it now and for the future; there is also a reality that photography for me is a way to be human and mentally/spiritually healthy.

I recently spent an afternoon walking the downtown of this city, to see what the isolation policy looks like. A walk is an excellent time to think, relax and stay fit.

I urge everyone to get information on news of the pandemic, and ways to stay safe and healthy, from government sources only - this is too important to base decisions on the disinformation of social media!

Sporting Portraits

The University of Winnipeg Wesmen athletics department is savvy enough to know that visuals matter. Recently I went to the downtown campus to produce headshots and portraits of their womens’ soccer team. Their energy and enthusiasm made for a great afternoon, and happily we had enough time to include a fun few shots for each player — it was these shots that stuck with me afterwards and, I think, show the spirit of each individual.

Can you see yourself or your employees in a portrait like this? Let’s talk!

Eid al Fitr, in photographs

The festival of Eid (or Eid al Fitr) is a joyous occasion in Muslim cultures. It marks the end of a month of fasting and introspection during the period of Ramadan, which is a time of reflecting on the blessings one has and to give to charity. In fact, some Christians may see some parallels between Lent and Ramadan, and Eid and Easter.
Here in Winnipeg, Eid is perhaps most notably marked by a large gathering at the downtown Convention Centre and I was fortunate enough to observe this year’s event at the beginning of June.

Held in a spectacular upstairs room fronted by a floor-to-ceiling window, the cavernous space was bathed in light, and the relatively-small figures of the faithful traced long dark shadows as they walked through the early morning sunlight.
It was hard not to see and feel some spiritual metaphors in a diverse group of people coming together in a brilliant, open space. I was free to discreetly walk about, trying to record the feeling and essence of this upbeat gathering. It was a wonderful time to be a photographer.

My thanks to the Manitoba Islamic Association for their help and of course friends Nilufer Rahman and Dr. Rehman Absulrehman!

The first image made when I arrived - surely a good omen for the day’s photography!

I don’t like using long lenses, much preferring a ‘normal’ or slight wide angle lens. I want my images to subtly help the viewer feel as though they were in the middle of what was happening. It also requires me to interact with subjects, and be mindful of how I affect them and the overall scene.

I could write pages about the glorious light on the morning of this event. It was a sensory feast, with beautiful light and shadow, a dazzling array of clothing and peoples, the fascinating sounds of prayer and the warmth of truly sincere smiles and friendliness.

How to find one face, one person, in a crowd that tells the overall story of so many others? That’s the job of a photojournalist and a photographer.

“I’ve Got Goals”…great shirt, kid.

I’d held my camera above my head, in order to get the right perspective on people leaving the event after its conclusion. I liked the lines and overall visual pattern. I didn’t realize until I got home to edit the images hours later that this woman gave a special shout-out to me! Whoever you are, thanks!

The colours and sheer visual parade was fantastic for a photographer. This dress immediately caught my eye.