Ice Fishing With Mi’kmaq
As usual, it’s around 10pm at night where I had this rush of creative ideas flowing in my head. As someone Neuro-Divergent I can say that its the norm for me, truly. However, I began to contemplate my life in Mi’kmaki (New Brunswick), and I just felt that I haven’t documented my time here enough to show how beautiful it truly is. To read how I got to Mi’kmaki to begin with, you can read this here. Anyways, I had this idea and began to post all over my social media trying to get some leads. I posted in community groups, Facebook, Instagram, and sent messages to my L’nu friends (Mi’kmaq). I then spoke to my wife about my idea of wanting to take some portraits of someone ice fishing. The reason Ice fishing came to mind, was because the other day before this day, I was driving and she saw someone ice fishing. I wasn’t aware people ice fished here, and was intrigued by it. Going back to the night I had this idea, a Mi’kmaq man named T.C responded to my post that my partner shared. He was willing to allow me to document, shoot, and fish with him. It was such an amazing experience to witness from driving, setting up, fishing, and breaking down the set up. Being from New York this is something I never experienced before nor do my people practice this. T.C and I spoke and he was willing to let me tag along the next morning. Everything happened so fast, but I was grateful enough that he agreed to let me tag along. So, I obviously said yes not knowing what to expect! I also feel very comfortable with Mi’kmaq people as they remind me a lot about my people (Quechua). Their type of hospitality is very comforting to me.
The next morning I decided randomly to Vlog my experience, although I was not prepared enough and was crunching on time. I was trying to figure out my ETA from getting breakfast, linking up with T.C, getting to the site and etc. Initially the vlog was for myself, so that I could remember the moment. I originally had no intention of uploading this to youtube, but I later changed my mind. I felt like the people who follow me on social media would love to experience this with me despite some of the hiccups in shooting or vlogging.
Difficulties I Faced Shooting
Quick Shots
The Weather
Bleeding Exposure
Quick Shots: I needed to be quick to take shots of the fish once they came out of the water, because moments later they would completely freeze.
The Weather: It was so cold that even though I wore boots (Timbs) the frozen water was freezing my feet. I literally could not feel my feet again until HOURS after we left. As a matter of fact T.C and I got off the Ice at one point trying to warm up. We also were there for 5 hours.
Bleeding Exposure: The defused light was going away as the sun came closer and closer. Once the sun was out the light was bleeding and reflecting off the sun which made it very hard for me to tell if I was in focus or not in some shots. My camera had a constant glare.
Difficulties I Faced Vlogging
ISO
Time
Flip Screen
Shot with two different cameras
ISO: I had a lower ISO on my Sony because I was playing with it and shooting the night before and didn’t realize until after I took my two shots with it.
Time: I was crunching on time so I wasn’t trying to be perfect, and most of my videos were shot off my Iphone such as my B-Roll shots and catching the action of fish coming out the ice hole.
Flip Screen: I am not used to vlogging with my flip screen so that it was difficult to get in focus.
Shot With Different Cameras: Shooting with different cameras as a colorist, I had to match up my shots.