Interview with Yuichi Takasaka

Yuichi Takasaka's love affair with the night sky began more than 20 years ago when he travelled from Tokyo, Japan, to Jasper, Alta., to photograph the northern lights for the first time. Attracted to the north, Takasaka moved to Yellowknife, the premier location from which to view the nighttime wonder. 'From there you can get well over 200 nights of the northern lights every year,' he says. His shots have appeared in SkyNews and on NASA's website and he is a member of The World At Night, an elite group of sky photographers.

		PHOTOGRAPHER Yuichi Takasaka Now settled in Lumby, B.C., Takasaka operates a photography and tourism business, Blue Moon Promotions. Although he no longer lives in the Northwest Territories, he still returns each year to capture the shifting colours of the northern lights. To see more of Takasaka's photos, check out the April 2011 issue of Canadian Geographic or visit his website.
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Q Did anything extraordinary happen while you were shooting Canada's new dark-sky preserves for CG?

AI've been photographing the night sky in the Canadian Rockies for many years, but this time, almost every night was clear.

During the day, it was rainy and cloudy. The weather predicted for the evenings was not good. I told the person I was travelling with, writer Peter McMahon, 'You never know. Don't worry about the forecast and just get up and go.' Sure enough, once we arrived at our location, the sky was clear. It was just unbelievable, especially the Columbia Icefields, an area known for snow and rain. We had amazing luck. I don't think the conditions will be the same again.

Q What's the best time of year to photograph the northern lights?

AMy favourite is the first three weeks of September because Yellowknife isn't too cold and the lakes are still not frozen, so you can see reflections of the northern lights in the water. The next best time is mid-December until the end of March. But it's very cold. The other day it was -40¯C.

Modern DSLR's have cases to protect them, but your hands can suffer terribly from such cold temperatures. It's almost impossible to take photographs unless you know how to do it very quickly.

QWho has had the greatest influence on your work?

ATwo friends who I met during my time living in Yellowknife. The first is Nori Sakamoto, who was the best known aurora photographer at the time. His pictures are exceptional. When most people were just shooting the northern lights, Nori was taking photos with buildings and mountains in the foreground. The second friend, Paul Nicklen, was interviewed a few years ago by Canadian Geographic. It's funny how we all started taking pictures at around the same time.

QWhere do you draw the inspiration from for your work?

AIt just comes. I guess I always want to do something new, so I'm constantly thinking about what I can do to make my work different.

QWhere do you take people on tours with Blue Moon Promotions and what attracts them to the journey out to see the stars?

AOn my tours I take people to photograph the northern lights every September and March. For the most part, these people are travelling all the way from Japan to spend four nights in Yellowknife. The first time they see the aurora they cannot say anything other than 'sugoi,' which means 'great!' This is the first Japanese word our English speaking guides learn. So far, even with the number of years I have been doing these tours, nobody has gone home without seeing the northern lights.

QHow do you create a time-lapse video using your DSLR camera?

ATime-lapse videos can be made by taking many, many pictures with your digital camera and putting them together in a sequence. After you sit your camera on a tripod just keep shooting, say every 10 seconds, for two to three hours or until your memory card is full.

I use a 32 GB card, the largest one I can use with my camera, and it takes about 1,200 RAW images. To fine-tune the colours afterwards, I use Canon's professional software to turn my RAW images into JPEGs or TIFFs. You can use other software, like Lightroom or Photoshop, but I find the Canon software easier to use. (Visit Takasaka's YouTube channel to check out more of his time-lapse videos)

QWhat has been your most memorable shoot?

ALast August I managed to get a shot of a lunar rainbow over Takkakaw Falls, B.C., Canada's second tallest waterfall. These rainbows or 'moonbows' are rare. To photograph them you have to know their direction and where they will come out.

The night before the shoot I was in Banff with a friend who's into astronomy. I told him what I planned to do and he said 'well, that's great, but it will be hard.' So I planned everything and was up there all night to get the shot. It was great Sugoi!

Interview by Catherine Labelle