T is for Tuttu

With the return of the sun, it seems like life is starting to wake up again in the arctic. Maybe this is just my perception after holing up in the house during the two months of darkness, but people are out hunting and (to me) anyway it seems that spirits have lifted as each day brings more light and with it beautiful colors. It’s almost like the new year in the arctic should begin on the first day the sun comes up. We’ve also been blessed with some warm weather, which has made getting outside and enjoying it that much easier.

I came across these two dead caribou on my photo walk. Nowhere else would I see guts and think, huh, I should photograph that. But this is Barrow and I loved catching the sun setting behind them on the sled. I couldn’t help but be amused later that afternoon when my son came home from preschool with his vocabulary words for T. Included was a picture of a caribou. He pointed to it proudly and said, “T is for Tuttu.”