06/11/2026
In July 2022 with the generous support of National Geographic Society I traveled to the Yukon document the endangered Northern Mountain Caribou. The caribou were listed as Special Concern under the federal Species at Risk Act in 2005. The main threat to the caribou population is increased predation which is linked to human-caused habitat disturbance.
My crew and I were helicoptered out to a remote location in the Yukon where we built the blind, which we would stay in and photograph from. Battling 30-degree temperatures and 50 mph winds we photographed for four days. Unfortunately, not only did we not see any caribou, but we saw no wildlife whatsoever. Not even a mosquito. We came back a few weeks later only to find that our blind had been blown over and needed to be rebuilt. Instead of shooting, we spent the weekend rebuilding it. A few days later when we came back to begin photographing, we found it blown over again!
Every time we tried to make this photograph; another wrench was thrown into the situation. With 3 strikes against us, this location was clearly not going to work. After a 2-hour discussion with my team, we began to focus on another potential mountain side location called “Carcross” which is short for caribou crossing. A local scientist told us the animals were currently migrating there.
With the help of the National Park Service, we drove all our gear up the mountain and set up a single pop-up tent in a Toyota Land Cruiser where my assistant and I photographed for about 36+ hours. Thankfully the caribou arrived on our last day, and we were able to finish the picture. See the link below and in my IG Stories for the full story about the making of this photograph: https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-land/
