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Eastern Shore

Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore is often referred to as the ‘Forgotten Shore’. It’s a part of the province that doesn’t have a lot of big tourist attractions but that shouldn’t deter you from exploring here. When you explore this place you have some absolutely amazing places all to yourself. You can explore beaches that are kilometres long and not see another soul. If you want to unplug from your connected life, slow down and enjoy some of Nova Scotia’s finest landscapes then the Eastern Shore is perfect for you. My family and I spent a week exploring Digby County’s Brier Island and the city of Halifax so we were in need of a chance to really slow down and unwind.

Before getting going to far on the shore, I wanted a chance to explore Lawrencetown. A beach in Nova Scotia that’s synonymous with surfing. I visited there when I was studying at Acadia and I’ve wanted to go back ever since. The surrounding area of Lawrencetown is gorgeous and we had an amazing bed and breakfast booked for ourselves so we could be close. The staff  at the Coastal Waters Bed and Breakfast were incredibly hospitable and proud to show off their home community. They gave us a tour of their beautiful property and then a few tips on where to go for an evening hike.

The beaches on the Eastern Shore are some of the most pristine and scenic beaches I’ve ever seen, and I’m from Cape Breton! We visited two beaches and I can’t decide on which I liked more. First we visited Martinique Beach, Nova Scotia’s longest sandy beach.

The Eastern Shore may not be well known compared to the Cabot Trail but if it’s known for anything, it’s that it’s home to an incredible coastline littered with 100s of rugged islands. There are a few provincial parks found along the coast but I’d have to reccommend Taylor Head Provincial Park to anyone looking for a great way to spend a day exploring the coast. This Park is pristine and is the perfect place to just unwind with the family. It’s my favourite place I’ve visited in the last few years actually.

If you’re looking for accommodations on the Eastern Shore, there is one place that is a highlight, Liscombe Lodge Resort. This resort has beautiful hiking trails, a restaurant and cottages. The cottages, complete with fireplaces, make for cozy mornings and evenings.

This area may be underexplored as a region but that means you’ll have so much of it all to yourself. If you’re looking to really get away from everything, the Eastern Shore is ideal for you.

 

Nova Scotia is known for coastal beauty, that’s not news to anyone. But what may surprise people is the amount of wildlife that can be accessed from the coast. Nova Scotia features a wide variety of options for wildlife tours, from watching puffins in Cape Breton to spotting massive humpback whales off Brier Island. From end to end, this province has something for all wildlife lovers.

The journey from Cape Breton to Brier Island took was a long 8 drive but the scenery along the way beautiful, the highways were clear and traffic was light. The real highlight was getting to show my family how beautiful the province is along the way. I had to make a detour into Wolfville before travelling through the Annapolis Valley. I haven’t been in Wolfville since graduating from Acadia University and it was great to see this small town, how it changed and what’s stayed the same.

When you travel to Brier Island you have to take two separate ferries, one short ferry ride from the mainland to Long Island and another slightly longer ride from Long Island to Brier Island. Be sure to show up close to the departure times, these ferries operate on a schedule and leave on the ___ every hour. I took in a quick hike while I was on Long Island. I’ve seen photos of Balancing Rock year ago in a Nova Scotia magazine and wanted to see it for so long, I was finally able to see it and how it actually stood there. The hike was pretty short on a well groomed trail that lead us straight to the coast. It’s a stop definitely worth taking if you have a little bit of time to spare.

When you arrive on Brier Island you have the choice to either immediately turn left or right, if you’re staying at the Brier Island Lodge take the right. The Lodge is only a few minutes away from the ferry. In fact, everything on Brier Island is only a few minutes away. The island is 6.2km long and 2ish km wide. Most of what the community of Brier Island offeres is found along the main street. This community made its living off fishing in the Bay of Fundy and what is synonymous with the Bay of Fundy? Tides! The priers stretch out into the coast where you can see just how extreme the tides rise and fall. Photographing the island alone was great. It’s a such a unique island setting. Any type of photographer would have a field day here.

 

While the island itself is worth a few days of photographing and exploring, the real reason I traveled here was to see humpback whales! I booked a few tours with Brier Island Whale and Marine Bird Tours. Since I was travelling with a 5 year old, I felt like a zodiac tour may be a little too long for her handle. The boat, the Mega Nova, provided ample places to sit, stay social distanced and to of course view the whales. After the crew introduced themselves and gave a safety talk we left the island to explore the Bay of Fundy.

When you’re looking for humpbacks you scan the horizon and watch for spouts of water shooting up from the whales after they surface and exhale. On foggy days you can even rely on the sound of their breath to pin point their location. It didn’t take long for the crew to spot our first whale. I always knew humpbacks were large creatures, but I don’t think you can appreciate actually how large they are without seeing them in person. We saw at least 7 whales, hundreds a phalaropes, a puffin, multiple shearwaters and gannets on our tour but the real gem of the tour was when we saw two humpbacks side by side when one lifted its pectoral fin and slapped it back down against the water. The humpback’s pectoral fin is considered to be the largest appendage in world and this was easily reached over 2/3 meters.

I booked an another tour that to see what evening light could offer. I was really hoping to see a humpback breach in a with a jump out of the water. I wanted to book as many tours as I could take in. The evening tour started off with a bang, instead of seeing a humpback first, a north Atlantic Right Whale surfaced next to the boat barely after leaving the island. These whales are critically endangered with less than 300 existing. Honestly, I could’ve turned around after seeing that whale, it was a real gift!

The evening tour didn’t have any whales that breached unfortunately but I was still very satisfied with all I got to see. It’s impossible to have a bad time when you’re cruising for whales on the Bay of Fundy in the evening light. I can’t wait to come back to try and see a whale jump, I’ll be using this as motivation to get back to Brier Island!

Before finishing my time in Digby county, we visited Bear River and what a gem this community is. It’s a short drive off the highway and the winding road leads to a small community centre that features two galleries, some restaurants, cafés and even a coffee roaster! We did a tour of the Bear River winery, the owner Darren, showed us the old barn that is the center-piece of the winery. When the grapes are collected from the vines, and brought in for crushing where they use the lay of the land and gravity to feed the juice from the grapes through the barn to the fermenting vats and after that, gravity is used again to feed the wine to the bottling and labeling stations. Bear River was a real hidden gem that my wife and I are still talking about. I’d love to go back in the fall. The foliage and landscape will be incredible.

From end to end this province is gorgeous and I can’t wait explore so much more of it.

Did you know that Yellowknife, Canada is the unofficial “aurora capital of the world?” Geographically, Yellowknife (‘YK’ for short) and surrounding area is perfectly situated under the northern hemisphere’s aurora oval. Although this region of Canada boasts more viewing nights than any other location in the world, it is not a total guarantee that you’ll see the lights if you come to Yellowknife. However, your odds of seeing the aurora here are much better than anywhere else in the world. Plus, you can fly directly to YK and have great food and have accommodations!

Solar minimum is coming up and it’s the time in the sun’s cycle where it has the least amount of storms that cause aurora displays so viewing them in Yellowknife is a good place to hedge your bets.

So how exactly do you chase the aurora? First we need to check two forecasts: the aurora forecast and the weather forecast.  Aurora viewing is dependent on high solar activity and clear skies are essential when viewing them. Aurora seems to be more common during the fall and spring equinoxes but they will happen throughout the year (I have photographed the aurora as early as August 4th!). Seeing the aurora in the fall and winter will work more in your favour since there’s more hours of darkness in this area of the world hence, making them easier to see. It’s always best to get out of town and get on the road when it comes to aurora chasing. There are two roads out of YK, the Ingraham Trail and Highway Three. I personally like going on the Ingraham Trail when I’m in YK. Typically I have a viewing location all to myself and there’s really not much chance of light pollution. Don’t forget, this area of the world is still fairly wild country so please be aware of your surroundings and going with a friend is always recommended.

Personally when I get ready to chase the aurora, I like to have a few preset ideas or locations in mind so I can pre visualize a few photos that I want. I probably won’t get exactly what I’m thinking but it’s a great starting point. I’m also not from Yellowknife so I don’t know all the great locations like the locals do, but it’s hard to take a bad photo of the night sky when in YK. However, I have two recommendations, if you’re photographing the lights in the autumn aurora season find a quiet lake and set up there. Use the reflection of the lake water to complete the photo and fill out your foreground. If you’re photographing in the winter, look for snow laden/ frost covered trees to help with the photo’s foreground. The trees will compliment your aurora photos beautifully.

A lot of people ask for the settings on aurora photos and of course there is no ‘one setting’ that will always do the best job. There are several factors such as moon light, how fast the aurora is moving, extra colours in the aurora, foreground darkness, how fast your lens is and type of camera you are shooting with which must all be taken in to consideration.

I’ll start off with a basic setting, say 10 seconds, f/1.8 at ISO 2000 (it goes without saying that you need a tripod for this stuff, so be sure to bring it). I’ll take a few photos to see check my exposure and then I’ll adjust based on the movement and brightness of the aurora. If they’re slow and somewhat dim, I’ll maybe try 15 or 20 seconds and keep my ISO stable or seek to lower it to prevent high ISO noise. If the aurora is quickly shooting across the sky, I’ll increase my ISO so I can expose the aurora as fast as possible. I personally love trying to capture the details in the aurora and long exposures will lose these details due to motion blur.

If you’re going to Yellowknife for the winter aurora be prepared to get cold. Temperatures at night can easily dip below -40ºC so be sure to get all the wool and down you get your hands on. Get some great boots and gloves so you can manipulate your camera’s controls without having to take your gloves off. Keep your camera batteries in pockets next to your skin and be prepared to throw a hand warmer in the pocket with them. The cold is merciless on camera batteries.

*Just a note here too – Yellowknife isn’t the only place in Canada where you can see the aurora. I’ve been photographing the aurora here in Hay River for almost 8 years and we get some spectacular shows. In some ways I’d argue that we get better displays than Yellowknife…but that argument is for another time 😉

 

 

There are many resources out there on how to photograph the aurora, and if you have questions post one here in the comments and I’ll answer them for you.

Happy shooting!