Pictures are coming in from photographers across the country for the 2016 Up Here Photo Contest. We've asked three photographers, representing the three territories, to judge this year's competition but first we thought we'd give them a chance to say introduce themselves and share their favourite thing about photographing the North:
Clare Kines (Nunavut)
The light. I live in an amazingly beautiful place, which makes photography easy, but it’s the light here that takes that to another level. It is constantly changing and has a quality that some photographers have to chase to find. As I write this we are three days away from our sun setting for the next three months, and still the light is like no other.
Clare is a retired Mountie, and the current Economic Development Officer for Arctic Bay, Nunavut—a vibrant community in the High Arctic where the exquisite light never ceases to inspire him. He is a generalist when it comes to photography with work spanning landscape, wildlife, studio, environmental portraiture, photojournalism and whatever else crosses his path. His love of nature and the wild comes through in his work. 
Marissa Tiel (Yukon)
I love the quality of light North of 60. Covering sports for the Whitehorse Star I get to travel to some unique locations and the light is always so different in every place, lending to creating interesting sports compositions.
Marissa has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University and studied photojournalism at Loyalist College. While she’s currently based in Yukon with the Whitehorse Star, journalism has taken Marissa around the world. She has covered arts in Montenegro, curling in Denmark and shot stories coast-to-coast-to-coast across Canada. Her work has been published in the Ryerson Review of Journalism, IMPACT Magazine, PADDLING Magazine, the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun.
Adam Hill (NWT)
Variety. The North is a nature photographer's playground, year-round, day or night. If you want wildlife, you can find it. If you want amazing vistas they're in reach. If you want aurora, just stay up late. I could live here for the rest of my life and still not have everything on my 'to photograph' list marked off.
A resident of the Northwest Territories since 2009, Adam is a nature photographer concerned with conveying the beauty he sees and feels in nature. Adam’s award-winning photography has been published in books, magazines, calendars and his prints are collected all over the world. Raised in scenic Cape Breton, he was inspired to seek the natural beauty the rest of Canada has to offer.
