A gold watch presented in 1913 to their local hero by the city of Toronto is part of the Sept. 22 auction trove. Wright seldom used the finicky watch — “the cost of new springs was so high I used my old dollar watch,” he said — “but he never threw it out, so he must have liked it,” Nick Lambourn, director of Exploration and Travel collections at Christie’s, tells the Star.

The collection came by way of Wright’s grandson, Adrian Raeside, whom also wrote a book and filmed a documentary about his grandfather’s incredible experience attempting the pole with Robert Scott. The auction catalog is online as well, and is worth taking a peek at.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I highly approve of Scott Bourne’s first tip, posted over at his informative Photofocus site,

Get out there. Weather is the photographer’s friend. Don’t let the cold or snow or ice or whatever stop you. It can add beauty and visual elements to your photography that make the difference between good and great photos..

Scott follows up with practical tips on protecting your lenses, dealing with batteries in variable conditions, and keeping moisture out of your camera.

You don’t want to get moisture or condensation inside your camera or your lens. You really don’t. Also be careful when bringing your camera indoors to a warm house from a cold outside. Put your camera/lenses in plastic bags that you can seal before you bring them in. That way the condensation forms on the bag not the gear.

Professional wildlife photographer Carolyn E. Wrigh offers up some advice on how to dress yourself for the cold,

In the most severe conditions, add face protection with a face mask, a baklava, or a neck gaiter. And never forget the sunscreen. Snow reflecting the sun’s rays will intensify your UV exposure, even on cloudy days.

As always, you can check out our store for a great selection of cold-weather clothing. Now that you’ve taken care of how to keep you and your camera warm and dry, you can focus on perfecting your wildlife photography shooting and processing skills.

The Beyond Megapixels blog also has a few helpful suggestions on the technical side of exposing potentially challenging subjects properly, for example, photographing polar bears with a backdrop of snow or ice.

Mother and cubs sleeping on an iceberg

The Guardian posted this terrific interview with two singers from divergent backgrounds, discussing their own relationships with the practice as well as how it relates to their experiences as modern native women.

Taqralik Partridge shares,

When I was a kid, we used to see throat singing on TV. Although I lived in Nunavik, an Inuit region in northern Quebec, there was nobody in the community who still knew how to throat sing and it was not widely practiced. So, we children used to pretend to throat sing and make weird sounds because there was nobody to teach us how to do it. Then, when I was at university in Montreal, I was lucky enough to have a friend who knew how to do it and I just thought I would give it a try.

For Nina Segalowitz, learning to throat sing was directly associated with reclaiming her heritage, as she was adopted to a family of very different background at very young age.

As much as my adoptive family loved me, I couldn’t see my reflection in the people around me. There was always something missing. Around 1995 or 1996, I started looking for my biological family. I met my biological family after I started throat singing. I felt it was a natural progression of discovering who I was.

Nina says that for her, throat singing is a way to bridge two worlds.

It’s also a way for us to show the contemporary and traditional sides of our lives, that we can do traditional activities and have traditional knowledge and language and yet also be contemporary in our lifestyle, where we live, what we eat and how we see the world.

But this is about more than just language. The Inughuit language is in danger because their way of life is changing, as climate change endangers the animals they hunt and the environment in which they and those animals live. As Leonard explains,

“It’s a community that’s dependent on the hunting of sea mammals. Because of global warming there are fewer animals to kill and it’s increasingly dangerous to do so using these ancient traditional techniques that they use [dogsled and kayak] and so it looks like now this entire community could be moved further south within 10-15 years. And if that happens, the language, culture, the way of life will all go, will all disappear.”
“If their language dies,” says Leonard, “their heritage and identity will die with it.” Leonard has a head start on the communication front; he’ll be able to get by in his new adopted community by speaking Danish, until he gets the hang of Inukun. But he’ll be rushing toward fluency in his first few months, because all of the good stuff – all of the Inughuit’s most important songs, stories, myths, and spiritual beliefs – live in Inuktun.

via Endangered People: Linguist To Document Dying Greenlandic Dialect | Brave Green World | Big Think.

In this month’s issue:

Iintroducing our new trip: Arviat Fly-In Polar Bear & Northern Lights Cabins

Move over Churchill! Make room for Arviat. Countless polar bears from the comfort of our Arviat Polar Bear cabins set on the shores of Hudson Bay.

– Thomas

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What is that?

It’s a Unicorn.

Never seen one up close before.

Beautiful.

Get away, get away.

I’m sorry

The guys at Brüdder did an amazing job with this. Having followed their progress, I thought I knew what to expect with this film, but it’s even cooler and more beautiful than I expected.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Anirniq – (Breath) from Brüdder on Vimeo.

If you are interested in this trip (Bowhead Whales, Walrus, & Inuit Culture in the Foxe Basin) for next year, please visit our website: http://arctickingdom.com/trips/walbow01-2/

Archeologists have no immediate plans to raise the ship. Sonar and remotely-operated camera equipment will be used to survey the area and inspect the craft.

CBC News – Technology & Science – Abandoned 1854 ship found in Arctic.

It’s a bit shaky (understandable given the cameraman’s cold hands and the fact that the narwhal dove under the kayak!), but I think it really captures something essential about the one-on-whale encounter!

Kayaking with Narwhal from Brüdder on Vimeo.