Yukon Silhouette

Traveling through the Yukon wilderness earlier this year presented me with many wonderful opportunities to photography the Northern Lights. As I was traveling with a group of hunters, the opportunities became somewhat more “unique” as the expedition progressed.

The hunters were after moose, and they were successful in their efforts. This presented me with a photographic subject to experiment with. Using an antler from one of the moose, I was able to create a fun composition with a fisheye lens and the auroras dancing in the sky in the background. It was a fun experiment and I like the results!

This was a tricky shot to take. I needed to let plenty of light in, while still maintaining a decent depth of field. Fisheye lenses will always have a very large depth of field, but I needed to find the right balance to get a clear and usable image. It didn’t help that my Canon EF 15mm F/2.8 fisheye lens was broken, and couldn’t work reliably at anything beyond its maximum aperture! By pure luck I was able to get a few shots off at F/4 without generating an “Error 01” and requiring the camera to reboot. It’s not the first time my camera gear has failed in the field, but I’m glad I was still able to salvage some great images. 🙂

What are your thoughts on this? I’m sure the image will mean different things to different people. I personally would never be able to shoot an animal, but I’m glad I was able to make my own use of hunt for creative photography.