Journey 01 · Canada
Eight Rolls North
The Yukon in September
Published 24 Oct 2025 · Travelled 6–20 Sept 2025
- 9 moments
- 15 days
- 1347 km
- Autumn
- Canada
- 105mm · f/11 · 1/60 · Portra 400
- 60.1730° N, 132.7200° W
- Frame 2, roll one
- Alaska Highway, near Teslin
- 09:10
- 6°C, flat white sky
The Alaska Highway runs straight through spruce for longer than any thought I brought with me. I stopped where the trees opened, stood the tripod in the gravel, and waited for one car to pass so the road would be empty again. One frame. The sound after the shutter was the whole point.
- 105mm · f/4 · 1/250 · Portra 400
- 61.0210° N, 138.4100° W
- Frame 6, roll two
- Kluane ranges, from the truck
- 15:35
- 8°C, broken cloud
I photograph the wing mirror on every drive, one frame per journey, a habit from my father's Corolla. This one held a lake and mountains I had driven past twice looking for something better. The mirror knew before I did.
one mirror frame per journey. house rule
- 105mm · f/16 · 1/15 · Ektar 100
- 60.5730° N, 137.2300° W
- Frames 3 and 4, roll three
- Kathleen Lake, Kluane
- 18:20
- 5°C, clearing
Mountains, water, cloud arranged like someone had tidied before guests arrived. I set up, metered, and then sat on the tailgate for forty minutes because the light was moving toward better and film teaches you to believe in later. Later came.
04 · Roll inventory, night six
- 105mm · f/11 · 1/125 · Ektar 100
- 64.3500° N, 138.2500° W
- Frames 7 and 8, roll four
- Tombstone Territorial Park
- 12:05
- 2°C, hard wind, sun
Up the Dempster the ground had already decided on autumn while the sky was still discussing it. Crimson bearberry and yellow willow to the horizon, and a wind that went through the coat I had called warm in the shop. Two frames, both metered off the red.
- 105mm · f/8 · 1/250 · Portra 400
- 64.0601° N, 139.4330° W
- Frame 1, roll five
- Dawson City
- 16:45
- 7°C, low sun, dust
The sign at the edge of town is the town: hand-painted, certain, a little crooked. Gold rush streets still unpaved because pavement would be an apology. I photographed the sign like a portrait, centred, out of respect.
- 105mm · f/5.6 · 1/125 · Portra 400
- 64.0623° N, 139.4333° W
- Frames 2 and 3, roll five
- 105mm · f/5.6 · 1/125 · Portra 400
- 64.0623° N, 139.4333° W
- Frames 2 and 3, roll five
- Front Street, Dawson City
- 17:30
- 6°C, golden hour
Dawson's buildings lean like they are listening to each other. Paint in colours a committee would never approve, doors that admit a century of boots. I gave the street two frames, which for me is a monologue.
- Listen
- Yukon River, near Carmacks
- 20:15
- 1°C, still, first stars
A driftwood fire on a gravel bar of the Yukon River, lit properly on the third match. Spruce pops like knuckles. Behind it, water moving at the speed of a person walking somewhere they know. I recorded two minutes on my phone and have played it back more than any song this year.
- Emerald Lake, near Carcross
- 08:50
- 3°C, clear, cold
- Last frame
On the last morning the lake did the thing the postcards promise, green over white marl like mint syrup poured on milk. I had six frames left and used one. The other five came home unexposed, which is how I know it was a good trip.
- 105mm · f/11 · 1/125 · Ektar 100
- 60.6280° N, 134.9400° W
- Frame 5, roll eight
The route
9 stops
Journey completed
Fifteen days, nine stories
- Frames exposed
- 74
- Rolls carried
- 8
- Rolls exposed
- 7.4
- Frames of aurora attempted
- 0, on principle
- Favourite moment
- Sitting on the truck's tailgate at Kathleen Lake, deciding a frame wasn't needed
- Best food
- Cinnamon bun the size of a clock from a bakery in Haines Junction
