Yellowknife Aurora 2025

I had no idea that Yellowknife (capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories) became an aurora mecca during the weeks going into and coming out of the September new moon. But it is!

Given how often I’ve gone on tours with Natural Habitat Adventures and how rich their Churchill aurora departures are, some might be surprised that I chased the northern lights with Akari Photo Tours.

But my aurora experience in Greenland spoiled me for aurora reflection photos. And for reflections, you need bodies of water. Yellowknife has lakes, so Akari it was.

It was a delightful tour, and I also learned that when you’re under the auroral oval, KP index values are irrelevant. Yellowknife’s skies are bright with northern lights 91%-100% nights year-’round.

The shooting sessions became a little hectic when the show was blazing hard. Lessons were learned. And photographs were made. Here’s what we got.

Yellowknife Aurora 2025 Big Camera

Yellowknife Aurora 2025 iPhone Shoebox

Akari Canadian Arctic Northern Lights Album

Guide Kevin Lisota captured some tasty time lapses.

 

Akari Photo Tours - Canadian Arctic Northern Lights in Autumn - Kevin Lisota

Yellowstone in Winter 2025

I went to Yellowstone in the winter in 2023 and loved it. But I went on my own and signed up for a variety of the Xanterra-operated tours (day and night) while staying at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge.

For Winter 2025, I thought I’d join Eric Rock’s Yellowstone in Winter tour operated by Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris. Eric was my guide for Natural Habitat Adventures’ Alaska Ultimate Wildlife Photo Safari in 2015. On both my NatHab Greenland and Borneo trips, a fellow traveler had also been guided by Eric Rock and voluntarily gushed lavish praise on him. Rightfully so: he’s an above-and-beyond guide and a rare photographer who creates wonderful images and knows how to relate to people. Previous clients seek him out for future travel.

So I booked the tour. It’s based out of West Yellowstone, where Kenny Jones collected us and drove us into the park (Yellowstone) each day. On a winter tour of Yellowstone, you never know how the weather’s going to play out while you’re there, so you trust the guide and driver to take you to good locations at the right times.

We got some great coyotes, “chased” a bobcat, had some nice wolf sightings, and immersed ourselves in some ethereal snowy landscapes, some with dreamy diamond dust swirling in the air. We even practiced a bit of ICM (intentional camera movement). 

A highlight was a “frosty bison.” The old bull was on his way to the infinite, losing his battle against the brutality that is deep winter in Yellowstone. But for the moment, he was standing his ground. And that’s how we will remember him.

Yellowstone is an entirely different park in the winter. Access to interior locations is limited to snowmobiles and snow coaches. There are no crowds.

This would be my last tour with the trusty Nikon D850s and associated S-mount lenses. Shortly after returning, I made the transition to mirrorless with the Nikon Z8. I had been waiting for Nikon to get its mirrorless bodies fully developed (the Z6 and Z7 were inauspicious starts) and for the lenses to blossom (long glass, especially). 

I’ve posted a few shot and hope to get more of them up; the transition and other life events disrupted my progress on this trip’s post-process. I don’t know when I’ll properly finish this project.

Yellowstone in Winter 2025 Big Camera (in progress)

Yellowstone in Winter 2025 iPhone Selects

Joseph Van Os Photo Safaris - Yellowstone in Winter - Eric Rock - Kenny Jones

Borneo 2024

I planned and booked a trip to Borneo for June, 2020 ... so that didn’t happen. I had booked the trip with Natural Habitat, and they were prompt and professional in refunding the trip payments. I had booked travel through Expedia, and they refunded all expenses in due time. Expedia needed some time to, but the world of travel (and the world in general) was in a state of upheaval at the time, and I know some travelers had much more difficulty getting their money back from canceled flights.

In any case, the next trip I scheduled my next trip to Greenland, as I assumed Greenland would be a safer destination than Borneo as COVID continued around the world. (As it turns out, Greenland is where I picked up my first—and only—SARS-CoV-2 infection.)

The at long last in 2024, I rebooked that trip to Borneo. Same trip with Natural Habitat, just four years delayed.

Travel to Borneo is non-trivial. My flights included a 16-hr flight from San Francisco to Singapore. So the hour hand on your watch needs to make a complete lap, and then only four hours remain. The flight begins after dark at SFO and chases the night, landing at SIN at daybreak. And you lose a day during the flight. I booked an extended nap at Singapore’s Changi airport (a cell-block room for a premium fee.) The airport is legendary, and includes a butterfly garden.

The tour is confined to Malaysian Borneo (a northern slice of the world’s third largest island). It begins in a western city and moves on to destinations in the east. Most of Borneo belongs to Indonesia, and a sliver of the island is the nation of Brunei (famous for wealth and its sultan.)

The starting point is the city of Kuching in the state of Sarawak. We visited the Semenggoh Orangutan Center, wherein I was reacquainted with the oppressive effects of heat and humidity. It was a lot (for me). But we got some nice shots of Annuar and some of his protected colleagues. We also visited Bako National Park to see a variety of residents. The silver leaf monkeys were certainly a highlight. Some nice limestone vs. ocean (South China Sea) geology, too.

From Kuching, we flew to Sandakan in the state of Sabah, where we proceeded to our lodging at the Sepilok Nature Resort. We had an evening tour of the Rainforest Discovery Centre in the Kabili-Sepilok Nature Reserve, where we saw a few jumps of the elusive red giant flying squirrel. I managed to catch slow-mo video of a flight on my phone.

We visited the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary and the Sun Bear Conservation Center. And then we were off to the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, carved out amid and protected from the surrounding palm oil plantation. Recent rains and road construction necessitated a muddy walk and a fortuitous cargo van lift to the center. Our time there was abbreviated, but we all got some keepers of those exotic monkeys.

After a visit to the bustling Sandakan market, we hopped a boat to the Kinabatangan Wetlands Resort, in the expansive Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. This might have been my favorite destination among the many on the tour. 

We enjoyed daily power boat outings into the sanctuary. Birds, alligators, monkeys, and orangutans in the wild. One day after sunset, we sidled alongside a tree that was host to a firefly colony. Groups of flies within the colony flashed in sync with each other. It was magical. I inquired as to how long the extension cord was to power these holiday lights. And nearly impossible to capture via camera or phone (in 2024).

We saw orangutans building their nest for the night. One male was keen to let us know he was the alpha by breaking a big branch in front of us. Thunderous crack! We were just there for the photos, we promised.

Next we traveled by boat and 4x4 deep into the heart of the Danum Valley, a protected 130-million year old rainforest. The Danum Valley Rainforest Lodge was deluxe and the surrounding wildlife was a menagerie. Rain did fall during our time there.

I found myself in a bit of distress when we embarked on a relatively long hike into the rainforest in search of the elusive rhinoceros hornbill. I had loaded my shooting vest up with, well, everything, not knowing when we might see. So the heat, humidity, slippery wet roots, thriving leeches ... eventually forced me to take an unscheduled break. My fellow travelers (from more humid climes) didn’t seem to have a problem. So I was that guy! 

My NathHab guides took great care of me, though, and I was back at it after a brief rest. Fellow travelers provided additional water and treats, and carried my laden vest out of the forest. So I’m grateful to all. And embarrassed to have been that guy. Mistakes were made: by me!

We got some nice shots of the wild residents of the valley (daytime and nighttime), as well as a classic sunrise scene of mist hanging in the folds of the valley.

Eventually, we made our way to Lahad Datu for a flight to Kota Kinabalu, where we tested before flying to our homes.

Quite. The. Trip. Natural Habitat Adventures - Wilds of Borneo: Orangutans and Beyond

Here are my media memories (photo albums and preso):

Borneo 2025 Gold

Borneo 2024 Silver

Borneo 2024 Bronze

Borneo 2024 iPhone

Boreno 2024 Presentation (YouTube export of my Keynote preso) Coming soon

Aurora to Eclipse 2024

Planning for the 2024 Great American Solar Eclipse began more than a year before April 8. Although the path of totality would pass over my brother's house near Buffalo, NY, I opted to travel to Texas in hopes of clear skies. The importance of a clear sky cannot be overemphasized when discussing the observation of totality. Eclipse chasers try to get close to the center line of the path of totality to maximize the duration of totality. And Those Who Know ... know that the difference between 99.9% totality and actual totality (100%) cannot be expressed in words.

My friend and fellow retired physics teacher, Dan Burns, was looking at North Waco as an option. I refreshed hotel reservation sites regularly hoping for availability. I expanded the search area and found a Hyatt east of Dallas that had opened their availability for the April 6-9 window. It seems they didn't know what they had. While other lodging options in the path of totality were harvesting dollars as best they could, tripling their normal rates, Hyatt was asking $105/night. Dan and I jumped on the deal.

We both made road trips of the journey to Dallas. Mine started in Bozeman and stopped by the Garden of the Gods (Colorado Springs) en route to Dallas. I made a slow journey back to Bozeman via red rock country. Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, Vermilion Cliffs, Canyon de Chelly, Chaco Canyon, and Flaming Gorge were among the "detours."

A month later, the aurora filled the skies over North America. Montana was "in the zone." I found some dark skies near Bozeman, but the northern lights were blazing nicely over the city, too. From The Headwaters of the Missouri State Park, you felt like you were under an umbrella of aurora. We had additional decent shows in August and October.

Here's the HTML export from my Keynote slideshow of all this stuff. You show be able to advance it easily enough in your browser. It behaves nicely for me in Safari and Firefox. And decently on my iPad (once I updated to iPadOS 18.2.1). HTML exports from Keynote can sometimes be a little laggy on advancing. I use the forward arrow key to advance things on my computer and just tap the screen on my iPad.

Aurora to Eclipse 2024 [HTML export from Keynote]

If you cannot get the HTML version to play nicely, here's a movie export posted to YouTube. It plays on its own; you can pause and unpause as needed.

Aurora to Eclipse 2024 [Movie export from Keynote]

Ex-Genesis guitarist, Steve Hackett was playing a concert in Dallas two days before the eclipse, so I was able to see that.

In the video capture of our "Eclipse Party" in the Hyatt's back yard, Dan was just off the left side of the screen. The enthusiastic gentleman on the right of the screen turns out to be the brother of a teacher colleague I worked with at Rio. He texted his brother once we figured out our random connection, and his brother complimented me with a colorful characterization.

Our sense of euphoric relief cannot be overstated. We thought we might get completely blocked from totality. And we had planned long in advance and traveled great distances to be there. Dan had several family members with him. Whew!

2024 04 Great American Eclipse in Dallas Photo Album

2024 04 Eclipse Road Trip Diversions Photo Album

2024 04 Eclipse Trip iPhone Photo Album

Yellowstone in Winter 2023

I moved to Bozeman in the summer of 2021. Primarily to be close to Yellowstone, so that I could visit anytime. Anytime shrunk a little bit since in the post-lockdown era, parks have been overrun beyond their capacities with folks understandably eager to see them. The shoulder season (spring and fall) became highly alluring. 

But winter. Winter was a different thing altogether. I made it through my first Bozeman winter without getting to the park. I did not intend to make it through two. So when it looked like the weather allowed safe driving from Bozeman to Mammoth Springs, I booked a trip that would involve a stay at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge.

I was nervous about parking the 4Runner at Mammoth and hoping it would start several days later after being allowed to freeze in the arctic temperatures, but you only live once. 

Yellowstone is a different park in the winter. Interior roads are open only to snowmobiles and snow coaches. Those roads are groomed nightly to ensure safe travel, but you can only get anywhere via snow coach. So I signed up for several Xanterra-operated tours.

On one of them, we saw a bobcat working on a mule deer carcass. That was an unexpected treat. My 200-500mm lens got a workout. The thinking was that the bobcat chased the deer over a cliff in Firehole Canyon. The deer did not survive the fall. That cat might have fallen, too, but survived. Or it climbed down more cautiously. This had happened weeks before my trip into the park. But the cat came back ... for whatever meat was still to be had.

I saw other things, too. A photo tour made an unscheduled stop at Norris Geyser Basin, a personal favorite place. A nighttime tour was delightful, as was the freedom to wander the Upper Geyser Basin on my own. 

Here’s what I came home with.

Winter in Yellowstone 2023 Big Camera

Winter in Yellowstone 2023 iPhone Shoebox

Greenland 2022

I was scheduled and ticketed to visit Borneo in June, 2020. So yeah… thankfully, Natural Habitat refunded the trip cost, and Expedia got my airline tickets refunded  I continue to book most of my reservations through Expedia since then; they’re very good about working things out when wrinkles occur.

Borneo was closed for travel for some time. And I booked a trip to East Greenland while COVID settled down and vaccinations ramped up worldwide. Remote and cold Greenland didn’t seem like a hotspot for outbreaks. We had to test for COVID to fly to Greenland, and again to transfer from Tasiilaq to our base camp nestled in a remote fjord. All from our group passed both tests. 

But weather in the region prevented us from getting to the base camp. We spent our time in the heavy rains and wind in Tasiilaq before transferring to Kulusuk, where he had a spot of nicer weather. The Natural Habitat guides kept us duly entertained, and the company provided generous accommodation for us not being able to get the full tour from base camp. 

Greenland 2022 (Movie export from Keynote]

Greenland 2022 [HTML export from Keynote]

The Natural Habitat trip was East Greenland Arctic Adventure.

2022 08 Greenland DSLR Golds Photo Album

2022 08 Greenland DSLR Silvers Photo Album

UPDATES: I did eventually make it to Borneo in June, 2024. And many of us did contract COVID in the outpost hotel in Kulusuk. There was another big group of Americans there while we were there, and it seems they were not operating under strict testing protocols. I was COVID-free from the initial outbreak (early 2020) until September, 2022. My case was mild (I had vaccines and boosters in me by then), and that was my only infection so far.

Norway 2018

I spent a month in Norway. The Oslo Airport hotel was a base of sorts. From there, I flew to The Lofoten and back, and took one of the many available Norway in a Nutshell railway/road/fjord tours to Bergen and back, and flew to Svalbard for my journey into the Arctic Ocean in search of polar bears. I was grateful for dark nights when I returned to Oslo from that expedition. 

A month in Norway with so many picturesque shooting locations will fill your memory cards and computer with images. Even with massive culling. So ... this is a big preso/video.

Norway 2018 [HTML export from Keynote]

Norway 2018 [Movie export from Keynote]

I toured Svalbard and the Arctic Ocean on the M/S Origo with Wildphoto (Longyearbyen).

I toured The Lofoten with 68 North / Cody Duncan (Lofoten).

I snuck in a quick tour of the countryside and Fjords with Norway in a Nutshell.

And I made a day trip from Longyearbyen to the abandoned Russian mining city of Pyramiden.

2018 07 Norway - Gold *** Photo Album

2018 07 Norway - Silver ** Photo Album

2018 07 Norway - Bronze * Photo Album

2018 07 Norway - Honorable Mention

2018 07 Norway - iPhone