A little icy after a long night of taking photos.

Me in one of my favorite elements, taking photos of the Northern Lights right across the street from my Mom’s house after a bowl of tuttu (caribou) soup in Tikigaq, Point Hope Alaska.

Photo Credit to my daughter

I'm from the ancient Indigenous village of Tikigaq, Point Hope, Alaska. The oldest continuously inhabited site in North America, a whaling & subsistence harvesting lifestyle community. For me, it's normal for many people to ask about my name, Casados. I'm half Spanish and half Iñupiaq. Perhaps that's why the long rides at night, the long hours being outside in -25 degree temperatures, or the fact that I can sleep out there at times is because it's like being home. And we all know that there’s just no place like home.

My passion for the Northern Lights would be a story only my mom could share. As a toddler boy she was apuing me, (carrying me in her back). There was a grand showing in the night sky and she said I popped up higher than I ever did. She said the look in my eyes was pure amazement and a smile of pure joy. To her, it is no surprise to see what I’m doing today, taking photos of one of the world’s Seven Wonders, the Aurora Borealis.

Photography has always been something I found joy in, the red room in high school, and as a boy I got scolded more than once for “wasting” my mom’s polaroid film. Taking photos of my favorite tree, the dog, sunsets, etc, when we lived in Southern California. My late uncle used to take double exposures of us and we loved seeing a twin of ourselves, with many other family fun photos. Cameras have just been around my whole life, from hunting and camping trips or just the long atv rides in the lands of the great caribou plains.