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Tales of an Arctic Photographer - A Conversation with Joseph Meehan
By | Cover Story |
May 3, 2010
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For the past 8 years, Smithsonian and Harvard researcher, Dr. Martin Nweeia, has been trying to answer a question that no one has been able to answer until now. What is the purpose of the extraordinary tusk of the Arctic Narwhal, sometimes called the unicorn whale? Professional photographer, Joseph Meehan, has been working with Nweeia since the beginning serving as expedition photographer for trips to the high Canadian Arctic and Northern Greenland. His experiences have ranged from hours of sitting in the arctic cold waiting for the whales punctuated by periods of frantic activity to catch that one special moment. “Until this expedition work”, Meehan recalls, “the closest I had come to the Arctic was a motorcycle trip to the Arctic Circle in Finland one summer and some tramping around an Icelandic glacier. So, I really had no idea of the realities of working as a photographer under Arctic conditions.” In preparation for the work, Meehan talked with a few fellow pros who had photographed in the far north but found that most had worked from ships or Snow Cats. It turns out that except for a few tips about equipment care, they were not much help for the conditions he would be working under.
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| (c) Joseph Meehan |
To begin with, Meehan and the other researchers lived with Inuit hunters for weeks at a time out at the frozen edge of the ocean (the flow edge) in tents exposed to the ever-changing weather of the Arctic. These hunters worked under very basic conditions and everyone else was expected to not only do the same but also not get in their way. “I can still remember when the first whale was taken by the hunters signaled by a gunshot around 1:00 am that jolted me out of a dead sleep. I literally rolled out of my sleeping bag, pulled on my boots and jacket, grabbed the camera bag and flew out of the tent into the cold dim light of the early Arctic spring. The hunters were faint figures about 200 yards away so I found myself running with what felt like a half-a-ton of camera gear through the snow, my head still in a fog of sleep and thinking to myself--- is this really happening!?”
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| (c) Joseph Meehan |
Meehan’s role was to not only photograph the whales in their habitat but also to record dissected specimens on the ice as the researcher went about his work. This could be tricky because the hunters were there for their own benefit and the research needs were secondary. Over the last 8 years the subject matter of the research expanded from just the whales to include valuable information coming out of interviews with senior Inuit hunters recorded on video by Meehan. During these times he was also able to get some unique still portraits to add to the landscape images taken during down times out on the ice and aerial shots from many small plane and helicopter trips. Other opportunities came when he stayed in the homes of the Inuit hunters between trips to the flow edge. “This was really quite an experience as I was able to see a hunter culture up close and personal. These guys were all business with no hint of hunting as a trophy sport. They were putting food on the table”. It was during an extended stay in Arctic Bay, Canada, waiting for the plane delayed by bad weather that he spent early mornings drinking coffee with a 70+-year-old hunter. The conversation often became a Q&A in which the hunter recounted life as a young hunter in the 1950’s in response to Meehan’s many questions. “I remember one morning when the subject turned to Polar Bears and the old hunter casually described how they would use sled dogs to get the bear to rear up so he could move in with a harpoon to the heart.” Apparently, rifles were very expensive for a subsistence young hunter in those days.
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| (c) Joseph Meehan |
Meehan had his own encounter with a Polar Bear while camped just south of the Northwest Passage off Admiralty Inlet in the Canadian Arctic. “I guess it was about three or four o’clock in the morning. I was in my sleeping bag when I heard a noise just out side my small one-man tent. At first I thought it was my guide on Polar Bear watch coming over to tell me the whales were in. I then realized by a shadow against the tent that a huge Polar Bear was right outside close enough so that I could hear the animal breathing. The bear then started to push on the front of the tent with a paw that looked like the size of a catcher’s mitt. To this day, I can still hear the scraping sound the rough pads of his paw made as it slid down the tent material.” The bear eventually lost interest and moved on. But the guide later told Meehan that he was very lucky since it was an old fat (well fed) bear. A hungry bear or a young bear would have surely attacked.
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| (c) Joseph Meehan |
The photographic needs for working in the Arctic begin and end with one word for Meehan: batteries. On the first expedition in 2003, he used both film and digital SLRs turning to film with all-mechanical cameras when the digital camera batteries failed after just a few days in the cold. On later expeditions, Meehan brought only DSLRs that had greatly improved battery life (plus several extra batteries) and 80% of all the images recorded for all trips were digital. “I shot RAW files only, and down loaded everything to a laptop in the field until those batteries ran out. My basic kit when photographing the whales was a 500mm f/4 with a 1.4x extender and 200-400mm f/4 zoom. I was often within 75-100 yards of the whales shooting from the shore so filling the viewfinder was no problem”. For the landscapes and portraits Meehan used a combination of three zooms: an 80-200mm f/2.8, a 24-85mm and a 17-35mm f/2.8 zoom. A 105mm macro handled the close-up work. Memory cards were the Extreme line from SanDisk and four camera bodies were carried on all expeditions. “When we camped on the ice, I always kept a camera bag ready to go right at the door of the tent where it was about the same temperature as the outside, less wind chill. So I had no problems with condensation from temperature changes. Batteries were kept in a waist pack inside my jacket and with me in the sleeping bag. On that first early morning described above, I lost about 5 minutes thinking both cameras I had carried in were not working before I realized that I had taken the batteries out to keep them warm!”
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| (c) Joseph Meehan |
Information about the Narwhal tusk research has appeared in major news and scientific publications all over the world along with many of Meehan’s photographs. A full page story that appeared in the “New York Times” and other US publications along with the research findings can be found on the expedition Web site: . Joseph Meehan’s work can be found at his Web site, www.josephmeehan.com and in any of the 25 books he has published since 1989. His most recent titles are: “Capturing Mood, Ambience, and Dramatic Effects”, “The Magic of Digital Close-Up Photography” and “Capturing Motion and Time in Photography”, all published by Sterling/Lark books.
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| (c) Joseph Meehan |
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Last Updated: Aug 11th, 2010 - 13:36:44
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