Pride Parade: 2024

This weekend saw the big event for Pride Month in the city - the Pride Parade, winding from the Legislative Building through downtown to the Forks.
It was a fun mix of my former genre of daily newspaper photography, street photography and impromptu portraiture. Anytime plenty of people gather, especially for a positive purpose, it’s a great place for photography.

One of the many corporate participants unfurls a large Pride flag while queueing for the start of the 2024 Winnipeg Pride Parade.

A group of spectators watch the parade unfold along Memorial Boulevard from the parkade of the former Bay building.

A different view of spectators in the former Bay building parkade watching the Pride Parade unfold on the street below them.

A child wearing a Pride necklace waves support for the procession in front of him on Memorial Boulevard.

One of the many revellers makes their way along a crowded Memorial Boulevard.

Few places are as rich and interesting for classic street photography as a parade. The art, expression and spirit of a Pride parade make it even more productive for the ‘flaneur’ approach to photography.

Motorcycles, and a casual-attire Spiderman, are seen at the head of the 2024 Pride parade.

Where it starts each year - people waiting to take part gather in Memorial Park, across from the Manitoba Legislature. This ‘bardo’ state, of in-between or waiting for what comes next, is always one of the most interesting places to look at as a photographer, in my experience.

Memories of Summer

With the Victoria Day long weekend here, it seems a good time to share a few images I came across randomly while (trying) to organize my sheets of negatives and contact sheets from the past decade or two.
The Victoria Day weekend is sort of the unofficial start to summer and after the kind of winters we usually get in this part of the continent it’s one that means a lot to Canadians. When I was living and working in Brandon another hallmark of summer was the annual Summer Fair and especially the carnival midway.

It was a pretty terrific place to be a photographer, as you’d see a wide variety of humanity parading before you, all complete un-self conscious and not terribly concerned with a photographer. In other words, an ideal place to do street photography and (beyond that) the classic ideal of the ‘flaneur’ . I always found it a wonderful place to people-watch in a setting where a lot of the closed guardedness of daily life would fall away and people could just have fun.

The pictures shared here today were taken on medium-format film on a Hasselblad camera - not the most ideal set-up for street photography but one I’d used before in travelling to Nepal - I wanted these pictures, taken around 2014, to stand apart from the usual newspaper coverage or even street photography type of images. I set out to try photograph what it felt like to go to the carnival, in a slightly different way - a detached yet empathetic observer.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! I’ve enabled comments on this post, or head over to my account on Instagram or Foto and share there.

Blessing of the Baskets - Continuing the search for Faith and Rituals

In my last post, I’d mentioned about continuing the personal project on faith and the pursuit of ritual - it’s interested me for a long time, in photography, how people across a wide variety of cultures, religions, places etc. all share this common desire for rituals.

The most recent instalment of this project came this weekend, with the Ukrainian ritual called ‘blessing of the baskets’, a high point in the religious year and a hallmark of Easter on the Orthodox calendar for Ukrainians.

It was a return for me, as I’d photographed this ritual previously, and the venue - the beautiful and historic St. Vladimir’s and Olga’s Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral - was one of the very first I’d photographed in when starting this project years ago.

The baskets contain food, especially bread which is relevant given Ukraine’s abundant wheat fields, and candles to spread light and receive blessings including sprinkling of holy water.

It was a fitting event to signify rebirth of this project, and I hope to continue it in the months ahead, as well as give clarity to its purpose going forward and exhibiting it in some form, also.

If you have ideas for various rituals to depict in photographs, whether it be small and ordinary and everyday, or large and grand occurring on special occasions - I’d love to include them. I’d also love to include a lot of diversity in this project, showing humanity’s shared urge to express itself through ritual.
Please contact me if you have suggestions - my website has a Contact section, I can be reached at email via talk@colincorneau.com or via Instagram

In the studio with Duo526

Recently, the musicians behind Duo526 contacted me for updated photographs for their increasingly-busy professional schedule. I had first known the violin half of the duo from photographing Kerry DuWors in Brandon, MB in her work as a dynamic professor at the respected School of Music .

She and pianist collaborator Futaba Niekawa really stand out to me (despite me being completely without any musical background) because their spirit and passion is so obvious — it’s a mindset that’s taken them and their exploration of music literally around the world, along with a strong emphasis on education and mentoring to students. Beyond the huge talent that’s plain to see, they have fun!

It was certainly fun working with the duo 5 years ago for the first time, and it was even more so this month for the sequel. The handful of photos here are just one note in a great long composition from our shoot together - Kerry and Futaba, thank you!

ADDED NOTE - I would be missing a point not to mention our fantastic venue, the Walker Studio Exchange in Winnipeg’s historic Exchange District. Wide open spaces, great windows and excellent owners make it a must-see.

A Couple Photos

I always get a little nervous before even the simplest portrait shoots. Most times, it’s just my mind shifting gears and focusing on the work ahead - ejecting all the extraneous thoughts and daily blah blah blah and leaving (hopefully) only the person(s) and the photography.

But on a few rare occasions, the slight buzz comes from photographing another photographer. Is there a photographer that doesn’t find that at least a little intimidating? After all, they’re privy to what we think, how we work and they’re uniquely qualified to assess what we’ve done.

This was the case recently when I photographed Dwayne Larson and his fiancé April, in advance of their wedding (which they paid me the honour of photographing). Dwayne and I have worked in Winnipeg and known each other for years and although we’re different in style — he’s cool and I’m not, let’s not mince words — we both have devoted our lives to photography. What an honour to have him specifically choose me, and my style of working, to make images of this very particular moment in the life and he and his life partner.

Meeting up at the unsung gem Langside Grocery all my nerves were quickly put to rest. Here were two people who made others feel as comfortable as they clearly did in their own skin. Best of all for this photographer, here were two people who are so obviously at ease and great around each other. Great subjects, great location, great light — it was the kind of portrait session I always hope to have!

<<Technical Notes>> My remote trigger stopped working almost immediately upon arrival, so on the fly I was switched to ‘available light’ mode. Thankfully, the late afternoon sun was perfect in Langside Grocery (did I mention how fantastic that location is..?) and so the shoot went on. I used the magical (no other word for it) Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 on my 5D Mark IV, with a few EF 50mm f/1.2 images thrown in when the moment was right.

For more samples of how I photograph people, take a look at my People section on this website.

The front counter at the wonderful Langside Grocery, avec April and Dwayne.

He Ho! Let's go (Voyageur Bop)

I’m not a fan of winter - anything you can’t drive a motorcycle in just doesn’t seem like fun to me. But the one event that can sway me (other than aurora borealis) is western Canada’s biggest winter festival, the wonderful Festivalé du Voyageur.

I had the good luck to photograph this year’s festival for online news outlet ChrisD.ca — my first time at the event since 2020. Go figure, the past few years have been eventful…

My favourite way of working - just wandering, packing just a few lenses - seems to produce my favourite kinds of photographs: small decisive moments that showcase people and light. Did I mention the light? As a festival devoted to the fur trade period of c.1815, the historical re-enactments in Fort Gibraltar have period lighting, namely lantern or window. I absolutely love it.
And you will too. I highly recommend checking out the FDV in the week it has remaining! The website linked has a full schedule.

Louis Gagne twirls a carefully groomed moustache in his role as a French Canadian fur trader at Fort Gibraltar, circa 1815.

Historical re-enactors portraying soldiers hired by Lord Selkirk fire muskets during a demonstration at Whittier Park.

Dancers with the Spirit Sands Singers await the start of a powwow, helping expand the understanding of First Nations presence during the early 19th century fur trade in Manitoba.

Participants in the international snow sculpture contest help their creation take shape near the gates of Fort Gibraltar, in Winnipeg’s Whittier Park.

The currency of the early 1800’s in western Canada - furs, on display in one of the historical re-enactment displays at Festivalé du Voyageur.

Cold air and hot tea, at a display in Fort Gibraltar.

Volunteer blacksmiths work on actual iron items exactly like those needed in everyday life at Fort Gibraltar in 1815.

Winnipeg trio Sweet Alibi performs at the 2023 Festivalé du Voyageur, joining local artists providing sounds from EDM to fiddle and jig to rock.

John Kosse lights up the first night of the 2023 Festivalé du Voyageur. Kosse was one of a group of representatives from the St. Paul Minnesota winter festival attending Winnipeg’s event.

The JD Edwards Band opens the 2023 Festivalé du Voyageur.

Friends, fire, festivalé.

A perennial festival favourite is maple taffy - just add snow and roll.

Initially an accident with leaving my camera on a different setting, I really liked the impressionist effect this had, to give a mood or feeling to this timeless scene. The irony is if I deliberately set out to make a photo like this, I probably wouldn’t do as well as this one!

A Walk With A Camera

One of the most enduring types of photography that’s been part of my life has been street photography. I prefer to think of it as ‘everyday life photography’, but ‘street’ is the most commonly known term for it.
I sometimes (only half-jokingly) call it ‘the least possible lucrative form of photography’ but maybe that’s part of the appeal - it doesn’t have to be bent or altered to do anything but what I feel about what I see, as I see it.

For me, it’s just pure reaction, in the moment, without any preconception. It draws on everything that’s happened in the past, but is also completely in the present moment. Going for a walk is always a great way to relax, but combine it with the keen observation that happens when you have a camera, and now you’re a flaneur. Finally, at the risk of reading too much into a simple walk with a camera, it’s a way for me to build empathy and understanding of others — I do think it’s only by being face-to-face and interacting with others (and no, via a phone does NOT count) that can hope to start appreciating them.

It’s with this background that I offer up a collection of street/everyday life photos from my own neighbourhood, a small selection from years of walking with a camera close to home. Wolseley is one of many interesting areas of this city, and of all the things many people will say about it, one undeniable fact is it’s one of the most walkable and varied neighbourhoods of them all. In other words, perfect for any street photographer.

I would be remiss if I didn’t say here that one of my main influences in everyday life photography, living one’s life with a camera and finding a sense of place through photography is a well-known figure in photography in this city and this country, John Paskievich. From almost inventing multimedia back in 1982 with his landmark short film “Ted Baryluk’s Grocery” to his excellent photobooks “The North End” and “The North End Revisited”, John has been an inspiration to a lot of photographers. I highly recommend either of his photobooks, by University of Manitoba Press.

For the camera nerds, all images were taken with a Leica M6, 35mm Leitz lens and mainly Kodak TMax 400 film.

Fire and Art Light the Night

This year’s Nuit Blanche event in Winnipeg was a feast for the eyes and mind. And if you’re a person who uses a camera to bring eye and mind together, well…it was a must-see.
Weather in this part of the world is always hit or miss when one season changes to another, but the first such event since the start of the pandemic was blessed with perfect weather and although it’s totally unscientific and just my observation, easily the biggest crowds in many years. Maybe ever.

Following are a few images from just a few spots on a fantastic Saturday night, including a funky disco event by the Peg City Rollers and the lead image of Mateo Lopez who along with the Free Spirit Fire group really lit up the night. Fantastic!

Mateo Lopez spins a web of fire around himself during a performance with Free Spirit Fire group, during the 2022 Nuit Blanche Winnipeg event.

Genie, with the Peg City Rollers rollerskating group, wraps herself in light while spinning to the music during the group’s Nuit Blanche 2022 event.

A dancer with Free Spirit Fire performs for the crowds during Nuit Blanche 2022 in Winnipeg’s Exchange District.

‘Fire Cycle’ by local artist Jonathan S. Green was the epicentre of Nuit Blanche 2022, providing a central event for the entire festival that people could rally to.

A member of the Peg City Roller wheels around a makeshift disco arena during the group’s exhibit for Nuit Blanche 2022.

A spire to faith and commitment

In Buddhist cultures, a ‘stupa’ is a focus of meditation, a structure that houses sacred objects. They’re a fairly common sight in Asia — in western Canada, not so much.
That’s why it was so gratifying to photograph the dedication of such a place this spring, as the local Sri Lankan Buddhist community came together to unveil the spire topping their very own stupa here in Winnipeg.

The ceremony marked many years of work by the ‘sangha’ -the community of monks, nuns and lay people - at the Mahamnevnawa Buddhist Meditation Centre who organized and built the structure themselves. Having also photographed the ceremony last fall when monks placed sacred objects inside the stupa, it was great to see how far the work has come to arrive at this point.

The weeks and months ahead will see finishing touches put on the site, but the structure itself now stands as a beacon of Buddhist faith, and a place for both the Sri Lankan community and the wider interested population to come to contemplate and be inspired.

Prayers

For the past several years, I’ve been pursuing a personal project on faith and rituals - producing images of the various things different peoples do to show their faith.
One of the first places I went to was St. Vladimir’s and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in the city’s North End. I was warmly welcomed and the priest was encouraging and open to my project. It was an invaluable confidence builder and paved the way for any subsequent work I did.

It was this familiarity that I took into returning to the beautiful landmark cathedral this weekend, as prayers were given new urgency with the war continuing in the Ukrainian homeland. I wanted to continue my work documenting faith but also see the faith being offered to those suffering from the current conflict.

By coincidence, a rally for Ukraine at the provincial Legislature was also taking place later that day, a chance for prayers of a different sort at a different landmark building — a ritual of faith to strengthen a common bond.

For those wishing to help, St. Vladimir’s and Olga Cathedral is accepting donations for Ukrainian citizens suffering under war. And of course, the Canadian Red Cross is also a trustworthy, effective organization to help those in need.

Kosmii and Mykhaila Liuba offer silent prayers at St. Vladimir’s and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral during Sunday mass.

Angels symbolizing peace adorn the altar as a congregant lights candles at St. Vladimir’s and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral during Sunday mass.

A rally at the Manitoba Legislature Sunday afternoon drew members and supporters of the city’s Ukrainian community.

Shining a light

For the past several years (a global pandemic, notwithstanding) I’ve been pursuing a personal project on “faith and rituals”.
I’m not entirely certain what form this project will take in future, and I’m not sure how I’ll make it more focused and specific (I know I need to do that), but a photographer friend once told me with photo essays it’s often best to just start out making pictures you like and let the direction come after some work has been done.

The wisdom of this has started to really be clear to me lately, specifically with two recent events from two different faith communities sharing a common theme.
At the beginning of November I made my way to a small North End temple for the Hindu festival of Diwali. Despite feeling very conspicuous with both my cameras and my obvious non-Hindu status, the people were warm and welcoming and I discreetly observed and (occasionally) made an image.
A month later, the city’s Jewish community gave me an equally welcoming reception for the 8-day festival of Hanukkah. Both the Etz Chayim and the Chabad-Lubavitch were kind enough to answer my questions and support my project efforts and, as with all the faith communities I’ve visited for this work, I was reminded how rich and varied our city actually is — there’s a lot going on beyond our habitual day-to-day surroundings and I’m blessed to have photography allow me to witness that first-hand.

I was also struck by the similarities in different religions and how common visual elements keep coming up, as I photograph more and more for this work. In the case of these two festivals, the element is light — both events are festivals of light, as a symbol of transcendence and expressed in literal form.
Happily, photography is all about light and so it felt fitting to show both of these festivals and what they have in common. L’Chaim and Namaste!

Diwali

Second night of Hanukkah

Diwali

Seventh night of Hanukkah

Diwali

Seventh night of Hanukkah

Diwali

Casual Fridays

Winnipeg has always been known for a thriving music and arts scene, but it’s only very recently that we’ve been able to start returning to that again. The pandemic, and most people and businesses adhering to lockdowns and other measures to prevent the spread of it, had put a night out on ice for well over a year.

Happily, high vaccination rates and businesses having a credible process to screen at the door have created a bit of a springtime in late autumn for live music.

It was this that allowed me to photograph a live performance this weekend by the newest jazz group in the city, the Jazz Casuals. It was a terrific way to end off a very long week, and the fine offerings by the venue, Little Brown Jug, was also very welcome.

Walking into the venue, I was greeted by a terrific space but a terrific space in near-total darkness. Certainly great for ambience, but not so great for photography! It was then that I was reminded of the difference between photographers who know lighting and those that don’t. One gets useable pictures, the other walks away with excuses.

I spent a lot of years in newspapers, and had the mantra of ‘available light’ drummed into me for literally decades.
However, if you believe photography is about telling stories, I’m afraid you can’t tell very many when you’re literally in the dark.

We live in a pretty amazing time for technology in making photographs, and one of my favourite is the advantages in lighting now. I’ve been a very satisfied user of Godox flashes for a few years now, both for reliability and how quick and easy it is to use their lights. Having something quick, easy and reliable makes it so much easier to just focus on creativity and that’s certainly been the case for me, whether in a dark jazz club or a bright outdoor location.

Setting up 2 small lights unobtrusively allowed me to create a mood and a feeling that fit the story, and not interfere with the musicians working or the audience enjoying the show. And, I didn’t have to make excuses — win/win/win!

Follow the Jazz Casuals on Instagram for news of upcoming shows.

Walking The Path at the 'Heart of the Continent'

The final day of September this year marked the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a new federal statutory holiday to honour children who died while attending residential schools in Canada, along with the survivors, families and communities still feeling the reverberations of that long-running system.

Here in Winnipeg, several events were held for citizens including a powwow, sacred fires and several rallies and marches.

I had the good fortune to photograph the main march, which began at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and ended at St. John’s Park. From start to end, there was a positivity in the air (even given the many hard and solemn stories to be told) and a real sense of solidarity. There was no mistake about why all were there and who they were there for.
It was also an ideal chance to meet someone or talk to someone you might not normally get the opportunity to. And a simple conversation is a terrific way to learn more.

I’ve always found photography is my ideal way to learn and connect with the world. For this, I was fortunate to experience this first annual event with my cameras. I sense a real shift in public attitudes and awareness, and I feel safe in saying the country is changing permanently from this process.

On a related note: if you or someone you know see yourself in my images, please reach out — I’d be happy to share them with you as a way of saying thanks. I asked each person portrayed here if I could photograph them, but in the rush of the event I didn’t get any contact information, as I normally do in case someone wants a copy of my work for themselves.

People attending a march in the inaugural Truth and Reconciliation Day stream through Winnipeg’s iconic Portage and Main intersection, Thursday afternoon.

People gathered for a march in the first Truth and Reconciliation Day in Winnipeg leave the city’s Human Rights Museum to the city’s downtown. Some held pictures of relatives or loved ones who attended Indian residential schools.

Riley Brown, an Oji-Cree woman from Manitou Rapids First Nation, wears a shawl adorned with handprints of her classmates at Urban Circle Training Centre. She told CBC News she was dancing in the march for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, residential school survivors and those who did not survive their time in the schools.

An elder smiles as she awaits the start of a march for this country’s inaugural Truth and Reconciliation Day, Thursday morning at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Thousands of people gathered at the Forks in the centre of the city for the start of a march, as part of Canada’s national Truth and Reconciliation Day. An orange shirt is a symbol of the issue of residential school survivors.

‘Every Child Matters’ is a slogan that has grown out of the increasing national awareness of the issue of residential schools in Canada.

Thousands of people await the start of a march while taking part in national Truth and Reconciliation Day events in Winnipeg, Thursday morning. They almost universally wore orange, making a striking sight as they walked together through the city.

A group of drummers make their way along North Main Street among thousands of others, on their way to a powwow at St. John’s Park, one of the original parks in the city and long a gathering place for First Nations and European people.

A participant in Thursday’s rally spreads her spirit to people sitting in front of the Main Street Project in Winnipeg.

A woman watching a procession for the first Truth and Reconciliation Day raises her arms as thousands of people walk past on North Main Street.

North Main Street, first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, Winnipeg Manitoba.

The grand entry to a powwow held in St. John’s Park makes its way past a capacity crowd gathered for festivities at the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg.

Young dancers join a long line of people of all kinds for the grand entry to a powwow held at the end of a march for Truth and Reconciliation Day in Winnipeg.

A Very Different Canada Day

Back when photographing for a daily newspaper, Canada Day was usually pretty straightforward: lots of Maple Leaf flags, maybe some citizenship ceremonies and one of the few chances to photograph a fireworks show.

This year, though, a long pandemic and record-setting heat-waves gave way to the horrific confirmation of something long whispered but never really faced up to in Canada — the deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands of children in church and government run residential schools for First Nations children.

It has completely overshadowed any thought of observing the day, and hopefully it can be more an occasion of thoughtful introspection.

I thought I would take this thought in mind as I went to see a few places for myself today. Not with any preconceived ideas but just to see for myself and leave my thoughts open, as they can only be from a good long walk.
I went to the Forks, a place where rivers have met for millennia and people have also met for almost as long. And I ended the day seeing for myself the provincial Legislature, where a statue of Queen Victoria was toppled by a crowd at the end of a march to mark the coming to light this year of what most First Nations have known for a long time.

Lawrence Cormiere pauses on his walk to Portage and Main in Winnipeg to take part in a rally about hundreds of graves found at sites of former residential schools. Cormiere said he too attended one of the schools as a youth.

A statue of Queen Victoria lies on the ground at the Manitoba Legislature, Thursday evening July 1, 2021.

Flags representing young children who suffered and perished at residential schools in Canada dot the front lawn of the Manitoba Legislature, Thursday evening July 1, 2021.

A man takes a selfie atop a statue of Queen Victoria in front of the Manitoba Legislature, Thursday evening July 1, 2021.

Blessings in the time of Covid

Several years ago, I started a personal project on rituals — acts of faith unique to a religion or faith community that have a tradition going back centuries or more. It was a rewarding idea and the more I worked on it, the more I was convinced it was a solid pursuit. And beyond that, it was something I got a lot of personal fulfillment out of - I was fortunate to witness moments I couldn’t have predicted or imagined and met a lot of new people.

And then Covid-19 happened.

Almost overnight, most faith centres closed in order to limit the spread of an airborne contagion (something a few people seem to have difficulty understanding) and my idea that slowly but surely began to gain momentum ended abruptly.

But as people begin to find their way through this uncertain time, some organizations figure out how to exercise their faith in ways to keep everyone as safe as possible. One example of this was the annual ritual in the Ukrainian Orthodox faith of the blessing of the Easter baskets, and how the faithful in the Ukrainian Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral of Sts. Vladimir and Olga made it happen in 2021.

Taking advantage of a beautiful spring day, they held the service outdoors, kept everyone well distanced and had people cycle through quickly so as not to linger. It was a heartfelt display of faith, and a quietly dignified rebuke to those who’ve used religion as a ruse to ignore the reality of public health measures.

On a personal note, it felt good after over a year to be making photographs for this project again. It very likely will be a long time before this project can be picked up again in any substantive, consistent way. But for one beautiful spring day, new images were being made and the idea lived on.

Father Ihor Shved sprinkles holy water upon the Easter baskets brought by sisters Ruslana and Svetlana Kashyna, during a special Covid-compliant service of the ‘Blessing of the Baskets’, a highly of the Orthodox calendar.

Volunteers helped create a makeshift altar and worship area outside the North End cathedral, including the iconic Easter eggs so closely associated with Ukrainian culture.

Father Ihor Shved tests a webcam set up to bring the service to faithful in their homes. The web savvy is one adaptation many churches are making to the health measures needed to keep their communities healthy.

After the basket ceremony outside, attendees could make a brief visit to the altar to round out their Easter observances.

Goddesses, Dragons and Ancestors

This past month has seen a lot of different photography for me, from portraits to street to even wildlife (OK, pelicans), but I’m returning to the topic of Northern Lights because…well, because magic doesn’t happen very often.

And that’s the only way to describe looking up and seeing the sky dance with softly glowing colours, in the kind of soft comforting silence you can only get from true solitude.

The aurora borealis is a result of solar radiation interacting with the Earth’s upper atmosphere — think of what happens to a neon bulb when you run electricity through it — but standing beneath it, it’s hard to reduce it to just that. There are a lot of legends surrounding the Northern Lights — from goddesses ushering in a new day, to dragons battling for good and evil and (most poetically, to me) the First Nations of North America seeing them as echoes of departed people moving and speaking to them in the infinity of the sky.

My latest aurora encounter began after a long day working. From the numbers coming in on solar activity, and an admin on a Facebook group far more versed in crunching the data, it looked like Friday night/Saturday morning would offer very good chances for spotting the Lights. Happily, the clouds and cold of recent days had departed and it looked ideal for trying one’s luck.
With that, I set out around midnight for a 2 hour drive away from the light pollution - and unfortunately increasing crowds - of the city. Several times I stopped by the side of a highway to gaze at the lights which already had made an appearance…I knew I’d made the right decision despite being on Hour 17 without sleep.

Pulling into my destination all weariness and doubt immediately fell away, as how right my choice was dazzled the sky overhead. Far from being confined low to the horizon, these lights were far brighter and covered at least half the sky. Like I said: magic!

Our sun is currently entering into an active phase of its regular cycle, so there’s a good chance these displays will return. My humble advice, if you want to witness them for yourself: approach them reverently and with respect and take the time to let it unfold. Aurora are unpredictable - they may show up early, or not until late into the night, and they may dance for hours, or minutes.
Set aside more time than you originally planned. It’s rare that we get an opportunity to sit in silence, with no demand to ‘do’ something or justify our time. Make the most of it!

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).

As the world turns

I’ve never tried my hand at astrophotography, but recently I learned of a traditional Thai “spirit house” in rural Manitoba. This phenomenon is commonplace almost everywhere in Thailand, a devoutly Buddhist nation with a prior history of animism and spirit worship - but understandably rare in Manitoba.
Once I saw it for myself, though, I knew almost immediately that its juxtaposition with a faraway land and culture would best be expressed by a show of the Northern Lights with it. While the aurora did not make an appearance - yet - I did have a crystal-clear sky to work with and a perfect vantage point centering on Polaris, which would offer a focal point for my image.

Adding to the excitement was the fact Manitoba is currently in the grips of a brutal cold snap, and my set-up was done in temperatures of -40 degrees Celsius. It’s nothing proper clothing and preparation can’t handle, but it definitely made working slower and more challenging. As did hearing a pack of coyotes howling in the woods surrounding the site - something the resident sled dogs responded to in kind!

I’m happy with how the shot turned out - while I would have preferred a show of the Aurora I was lucky that a ‘radial’ type display of star trails could still be had with this unique cultural marker. On the technical side, I used a free program called Star StaX and combined 60 separate photographs (looking basically like the second shot here) to make the final lead image. I’d recommend this program, it’s easy and basically self-explanatory to use, does not downsize or reduce your final image, and did I mention it’s free? The third image gives a view of the app’s homepage; be sure to select the download that corresponds to your Mac’s current operating software.

The sun-dog days of winter

The sight of sun-dogs — parhelion for the meteorologists in the crowd — is a hallmark of bitterly cold days here. Caused most commonly by ice crystals suspended in clouds or floating freely in the air, these crystals act as prisms, bending light into a spectacular display in the sky when the conditions are right.

Wikipedia was kind enough to mention that sun-dogs can exist on other planets, too:

Mars might have sun dogs formed by both water-ice and CO2-ice. On the gas giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—other crystals form clouds of ammonia, methane, and other substances that can produce halos with four or more sun dogs.[8]

My work more commonly involves portraits, street photography and people in general — that obviously is on hiatus now with the lockdowns imposed by our provincial governments in grappling with the pandemic. But that leaves an opening to pursue different subjects and different pursuits with a camera, in my case the landscapes and places around our city. As long as you’re dressed for it, there’s a lot of beauty to be seen!

Frosty Reception

There’s a lot about winter to dislike - the bitter winds and cold, the lack of green and plants, the long dark nights. Which is why it’s more inspiring when a city finds a way to not just endure winter but enjoy it.
Over the years, Winnipeg has - piece by piece - found ways to really make our famous winters come alive and bring people together. It’s a lot easier to get outside and actually see what the season offers visually when there’s so much going on.

This week, unusually mild temperatures brought fog and mist, and the next morning the whole city was coated in beautiful hoarfrost. Seeing a frosted city was just too good to resist, and judging by local social media that day my choice was a popular one. Hopefully I found a few scenes not already documented on the #Winnipeg hashtag.
The warmth, and the hunger to get outside and active after a very stifled pandemic year, have made our rivers and parks much busier places.

The Saint Boniface Cathedral is seen across the Red River nestled in a forest of hoarfrost.

Skaters take to the ice on the Assiniboine River at The Forks in Winnipeg.

The gates of Saint Boniface Cemetery, gilded with frost, frame the historic Cathedral.

Skaters catch the sun at Assiniboine Park, with the Pavilion seen in the background left and a tobogganing run at right.

There’s a lot of competition for the title of “Winter Wonderland” this year, but one family in Wolseley has carved out a real front-runner on the Assiniboine River. It joins a grassroots-created network of skating and skiing trails and rinks in the area.

The ‘Roaring Game’ of curling has found a home on the Assiniboine between the neighbourhoods of Wolseley and River Heights.

A sundial sculpture, entitled “The Passage of Time” by artist Marcel Gosselin, is seen at The Forks in Winnipeg.