Sky Witness: Labrador photographer spends decades capturing northern lights

After more than 30 years of photographing the northern lights, Larry Jenkins still remembers his first time.

"The results weren't that good," he laughs. "The film had to be sent out to a lab, and I waited for the results to come back and, yeah, it wasn't great."

That was back in the early '80s, 10 years after moving to Labrador West, when Jenkins was using an old camera and slide film. He'd shoot, send it off to a lab in British Columbia, and wait for the negatives to come back.

Since then, the world has moved on through a digital revolution, a change Jenkins reluctantly embraced.

That was about 10 years ago, and since then he's grown to love digital technology, both for its actual photos, and the help it provides in getting them.

In the past he used to keep an eye on the sky, or just head out and hope for the best.

He still does, but these days Jenkins can check websites to get a better idea of when the northern lights might show up in the area, before heading out with his gear — a tripod, camera, and shutter release.

The online data is not always accurate, he said, but it does help.

"You have to get outside of town, of course. It's hard to be shooting in town, with all the light pollution and stuff," he said. "Just sit in your truck, or if you're out on Ski-Doo, and just keep looking."

You can get a shot pretty much any time of year, and in 2015, Jenkins managed to get an image of the northern lights for each of the 12 months.

The best times, he said, are between September and April.

In Labrador, that can be challenging, as temperatures in the western part of the region plummet.

"It's not easy," Jenkins said. "I've come back with frozen fingers, because it's kind of hard to work the controls on your camera, with a shutter release cable, and then settings and stuff with mitts or gloves on. The camera gear doesn't always work well either. I've had batteries die. In the days of film, I used a film camera with manual advance, and sometimes the film would creak and crack, and I've even had it break on me. You've been out there for three or four hours, and that film is pretty brittle."

Like a lot of natural phenomena, it can be hit or miss trying to capture the northern lights.

Success is not guaranteed, and that's part of what keeps Jenkins going.

"You're always looking for that shot, y'know, that's going to be better than the one you got before. I've taken thousands over the years — a lot of them are real duds, I wouldn't even show them," he said. "But I've always got the desire to go, and I always keep an eye out."