Alaska Uncovered Podcast
Welcome to the Alaska Uncovered Podcast with your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming. Jennie brings you accurate, helpful and entertaining information about Alaska Travel and Life in Alaska. Guests include Alaska travel experts and Alaska business owners, guides and interesting Alaskans. Jennie is a born and raised Seattleite, a former Alaskan and spends several weeks in Alaska each year. She’s an experienced guide and the Founder of the Alaska and Washington travel website, Top Left Adventures. Jennie is joined by occasional co-host, Jay Flaming, her husband for more than 20 years. Jennie and Jay met working in tourism in Skagway, Alaska and also lived in Juneau and Fairbanks together. Jay lived in Fairbanks for 8 years before meeting Jennie in Skagway and grew up in Yellowstone National Park.
Alaska Uncovered Podcast
From Brazil to Talkeetna chasing the Aurora with Dora Redman (Alaska Stories Series)
Northern Lights photographer Dora Redman, also known as Aurora Dora, joins Jennie to share her story of moving from Brazil to Talkeetna as a young woman, adjusting to remote cold wilderness from the urban tropics and becoming a professional photographer.
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Jennie, welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, my occasional co host and full time husband, Jennie and I bring you accurate, helpful and entertaining information about Alaska, travel and life in Alaska, before we start today's show, we'd like to take a moment to thank our Patreon subscribers for your support and making this podcast possible. Enjoy the show. Are you planning on visiting telquita When you go to Alaska, or are you just really interested in the Northern Lights and artists and interesting Alaskans? Well, if any of those things are true for you, you are gonna love today's episode. My guest today is Dora Redman, also known as Aurora Dora. Dora is an amazing photographer. She takes incredible photos of the Northern Lights. We'll talk more about that in a few minutes. She has lived in Talkeetna for 24 years, and when she is not out taking photos of the Aurora, you will find her at her gallery in downtown telquitna. Dora, welcome to Alaska, uncovered. Thank you for being here.
Dora:Oh, thank you, Jennie. I'm so excited to be in here. I love your podcast. I love all the information you share, and being here is an honor for me, thank you.
Jennie Flaming:Oh, you're welcome. I'm so glad that you wanted to do this, and I'm really looking forward to hearing more of your story, because I have been lucky enough to go to your awesome gallery and meet you there. We'll talk more about that in a few minutes, but you know that's always in kind of a busy middle of the moment, lots of guests around, lots of things happening. So getting to chat with you longer is going to be wonderful. So Dora, let's start with having you tell everybody how you got to Alaska and how you got to tell kitna, 24 years ago,
Dora:okay, yeah, you know, I'm from Brazil. That's why I have this accent. 20, I don't know 26 27 years ago, I was just wondering in Sao, Paulo, Brazil, and I met man that became my husband. His name was Andrew, and, you know, we dated a couple years, and with that back and forth in a distance, dating, and then one day, he went back to Brazil and asked me to marry him, him, and I said, you know, I don't know about that. It's like the first thing that happened is he said to me that he lived in a small cabin between Willow and Thal kitna, and the cabin was the size of my kitchen and my house in Sao Paulo. And was like, hmm, that's intriguing. What do you do for love? I can tell you what we do for love.
Jennie Flaming:Yes, that's so true. Yeah,
Dora:I ended up coming to talkeetna, and I got to here, and I was living in the middle of nowhere between Willow and takina, and I loved it that the first thing I noticed is that I could hear my thoughts I didn't have that never stop roaming of a big city. Yeah, you know, it was so interesting. Yeah, I could hear what I was thinking and the birds. It was just phenomenal. I arrived in talkita, or I arrived in Alaska in just the early May, and, you know, beginning of summer and all that. I've always liked to put the stuff in in a great comparison, a contrast, yeah, when I left Sao Paulo, Brazil, that is one of the five largest cities on a planet. Nowadays, Sao Paulo has 40 million people, but when I left Sao Paulo, it had 18 million people. That's still
Jennie Flaming:a lot. Yeah, very big city,
Dora:yeah. And when I arrived to talkeetna, had 600 Yes, yeah, it was like this huge contrast and shock, yes, amazing, amazing, I know, is. Is, you know, is a is a kind of adventure that so many people think, oh, one day I'm gonna go to Alaska and I'm gonna move to Alaska, as a lot of young people dream that, yes, many times I hear, you know, people that are unlike in a older age, coming to my gallery and saying to me, I always dream to do what you did. I'm glad someone did.
Jennie Flaming:Yeah, yeah, I love it. So, okay, so you took the plunge, plunge, and you had not visited Alaska before, right? And that's that
Dora:was a kind of interesting because when Andrew proposed, I said, you know, I'm going to Alaska and I will answer you there, because I didn't know what to expect. Good thinking, yeah, the coming from a tropical country, the vision that we have from Alaska is that it's, you know, 12 months of the year under snow, always cold, and you live in igloos, and you have a pet polar bears, the most distorted, you know, yes, completely confused. And I'm talking about obvious. I'm talking about 24 years ago. Yes, you know, we didn't have the internet, we didn't have Google, we did not have social media. It's a lot of changes that happen in our lives from 24 years back, you know, 20 years back to now. Yeah, then yes, I took the plunge.
Jennie Flaming:I love it. So did you eventually decide to marry Andrew after you got to Alaska?
Dora:Yes, yes. I was here exactly for six months when we got married, or a couple days before my six months.
Jennie Flaming:Nice. So just in time for winter, then just
Dora:in time for winter. And I had some friends in talking that they said to me, Dora, you were nuts. You're getting married in November. You needed to get married after your first winter. But yeah, that's what happened. And you know, it was, it was great, um, it was a lot of change in my life coming from Sao Paulo, you know that you have everything right there. You don't need to make a grocery shop list that you are going to wait one week or two to drive down the road 75 miles to go shopping. You know, it's like I could walk two blocks to a grocery shop. Everything is very different, and the driving distances are incredibly different.
Jennie Flaming:Yes, yeah, wow. I mean, everything about it is different, the climate, the size of the community, the distances all my
Dora:first winter, I had so many adventures of learning how to live in Alaska. That was very, very interesting.
Jennie Flaming:I bet it was. Oh, yeah. And, you know, when
Dora:I came to Alaska, I brought my son with me. He was a toddler, uh huh, yes, it was. It was interesting raising him in in talking. Now, you know, it was amazing raising him in talking, a great experience. But I do remember one time, you know, Andrew worked remotely with airplanes, you know, as an aircraft mechanic. Uh huh. He was, I don't know where in Alaska, and I needed to go grocery shop. And like I said, 75 miles down the road, and there we went. We went to grocery shop, came back. Long, long day. I'm unloading the car. I had my little cabin that was the size of my kitchen in Brazil. And if I explain was a dry cabin, ah,
Jennie Flaming:Yes, uh huh. We'll come back to that in a moment.
Dora:Yes, okay, because I can explain that, yes. Anyway, we're unloading everything lots of snow surrounding us. Was mid winter. And then I've, after I finished unloading and putting everything inside the little cabin and put my son inside the two I decided to start cooking dinner. And then when I noticed that we were out of propane, Oh, no. Now the little small cabin was just like an a frame, yeah, roof had shed it over the propane tank, oh, Uh huh. And then I needed to get the shovel and shovel snow and. I embarrass that put to the propane tank in my car to go fill up and against the station. Yes, but I lost the key in the middle of the snow. No, I didn't have my car key. Then I spent a long hours. This was like a colony of air horse
Jennie Flaming:there. Yeah, and all of this with a toddler by yourself.
Dora:Finally, we found the key, fill up the propane tank, and I was able to cook dinner, but it was just, you know, things that you don't imagine when you were in a big city. And, no, no, you turn on, you switch your light switch, and the light is on. Yeah, you flush your toilet, and your toilet flushes, you know, you turn on the propane, and there's the propane, or not even propane is, you know, natural gas coming into your home. Yeah, it's a completely different thing. Yes, okay,
Jennie Flaming:so Dora, tell everybody a little bit about what a dry cabin is, and also listeners. We did have a whole episode about dry cabins about a year and a half ago. So if you're intrigued by this and you want to know more, you can listen to that episode as well. So, yeah, Dora, what is a dry cabin?
Unknown:A dry cabin, you don't have running water, yes. In other words, you have your facilities. Is outside the house. You have out the house, yes, yeah, and that's what I had, that I had the best outhouse of the planet, because we had a
Jennie Flaming:view. Ooh, nice, huh? Yes, we
Unknown:have an incredible view. And I'm gonna get back to that also. You know, inside the cabin, we had a kitchen. We had a little water pump that we pumped the water to do a dishes and to cook. And we had a little crib that is where the water, instead of having a septic system, yes, rain water can be, you know, go to it, yes, yeah. But not. You can do this with the other part, yeah, the other part goes right there on an outhouse. But what I said I was going to go back to the outhouse side with a great view. Yes, people come to my gallery, and they always ask me, What do I do to see the northern lights? And I say, drink lots of water. Yes, wake up during the night. Yes, yeah. And, you know, I had a beautiful view because my outer house had only a half a door, and I always had amazing auroras when I needed to run there in the middle of the night. Yes,
Jennie Flaming:I love that I lived in a dry cabin in Fairbanks for a couple years. And you know, same deal. There are some benefits to having to run out to your outhouse when it's cold in the middle of the night, and seeing the Northern Lights definitely takes the edge off the cold, for sure,
Unknown:yeah, and also Yeah, I'm sure you learn about the benefits of the blue form toilet seat. Oh
Jennie Flaming:yes, yes, absolutely necessary, because you cannot sit on a cold toilet seat. That is not okay.
Unknown:Oh, my gosh, conversation we're having,
Jennie Flaming:I know, but I love it, and that's exactly what these story episodes are all about. So this is so fun. Okay, so Dora, how did you get into photography? Where have you always been a photographer, or did you get into that after you moved to talk kitna,
Unknown:you know, photography is something that was always with me. I have memories like of me being three, four years old, with a little plastic camera on my hand, and I need to tell my age that people will understand what I'm saying. Ah, yes, okay. I am 62 years old. Okay, yeah. And then 60 some years back, we had the little plastic camera that you crank up the film, and you had a little cube in the top that you had four flashes, and they spawn for you to use each one of the flashes. This is my very first photography camera memory in my life. But I always had the camera on my hand. I loved it, and I was about to six years old, and I went with my mom to the Botanical Garden in some. Paulo and my mom with her camera, a beautiful rolly flex, and I'm with my plastic camera, happy as I could be. Oh, we spend the whole day photographing, and about one week later, when we need one week, you know, to develop and have the film The photos worse. Yeah, she came back home and she gave me a package with my photos, and said, My daughter, you are doing much better than I will ever do. We're going to be changing our cameras. You have mine. I have yours. Oh,
Jennie Flaming:so you were six,
Unknown:and you know, we're talking about a medium format camera that my mom gave me. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, super cool. She really like gave me a whole new world of photography right there. And you know, if someone comes to my gallery, I have a photo of me with the camera. I was probably 80 years old on the photo is right there in a wall at the gallery.
Jennie Flaming:Yeah, love it. But then I was growing
Unknown:up in is, you know, I'm talking about late 60s, early 70s. My parents kept telling me, remember, photography is a hobby, not a job. Ah, yes, uh huh. Many
Jennie Flaming:a photographer has been told that I believe exactly.
Unknown:Then, you know, I kept photographing and kept studying, and then I ended my degrees in architecture, but I always had a camera on my hands, yeah, architecture, photography, then on my mid 20s, you know, mid to late 20s, I just said, decided to try again photography, you know, as try for real, yeah, as a job, as my profession. And I went to work with a photographer called Miro in Brazil, in San Paolo. And with Miro, we did a fashion photography Steel's advertisement. He's a well known photographer, and at that point, I was shooting, you know, all my images under him and his studio. I did a lot of fashion for Vogue magazine and l magazines. It was interesting, but not my calling. Yeah. Then after a couple years doing that, I was like, You know what? I don't want to be working under someone doing their style of photography. I don't want to do fashion. Photographing people is not what I really enjoy. I'm going to go back to architecture. That's what I did. Now. When I moved to Alaska, I learned that to work with architecture in United States, I needed to go back to school for two more years, uh huh. And that's the moment that I said, you know, I really don't need my diploma. I really my passion was never really architecture. I did that because I liked but what I really love is photography. Yeah, being in Alaska, Alaska is just the dream for any photographer. You're in the road, every turn you make, you're gonna take more photos. It's beautiful. Is the sky, and then you have the animals as a wildlife and flowers and trees and turns and water and energy, even rocks in a road.
Jennie Flaming:Yeah, yeah, it's incredible. Yeah, yeah.
Unknown:So did you use my camera full time? Yeah,
Jennie Flaming:so did you? Did you start selling photos right away when you moved to Alaska? Or did it take a little while? No, I
Unknown:needed to build up a portfolio. Yeah, that's what I did. Then I traveled a lot to Alaska in that, you know, first years here, and I photographed a lot, yeah, from wildlife to landscapes, many day images I was, you know, just starting to do night photography, because it was a completely different set of skills, yeah, and, you know, and at that point, I think I needed to regress This conversation a little more, because in my first year that I was in in Alaska, you know, since I arrived in May, it was early summer, right? I don't have any Aurora, right? Reality, I have never heard about the northern lights or the Aurora Borealis before. I came to Alaska. Ah,
Jennie Flaming:so that was when fall came. You were like,
Unknown:Yeah, everything came together, you know, my neighbors, my friends, Andrew telling me, you need to see the northern lights. And I'm like, seeing what the Aurora Borealis? What is it, the lights in the sky. You know, again, remember, we're talking about the era without cell phones, without smartphones, without Google, without social media. I didn't know what it was.
Jennie Flaming:Yeah, yeah, right. So do you remember the first time you saw them. Oh,
Unknown:I do, oh, tell us about it. Oh, my gosh, it was incredible. You know, I looked up the sky and I saw those lights that they were like, moving very, very slow. And the green, you know, was a green band. And that green band started dancing and flickering and almost like a curtain. The best way it is a curtain, yeah, a curtain moving in a wind, and then it started increasing and going high in a sky, changing colors to purple. And it was amazing. And I remember I was just, you know, I left, like, stepped outside the house, dressed in a thin jacket, you know, just my slippers, not even boots. And I'm looking at that. I lay down on the top of the the car, you know, the where you have the engine. I just Yes up, and I was like, This is amazing. How can you describe it's horrible. It's I don't know how to describe Aurora, and that's what I work with.
Jennie Flaming:I know it's really hard to and I feel like, as amazing as it is to see photos and videos of the aurora that, like, there's something about when you're seeing it in person, and the like, just whole experience that is just very difficult to describe, I think you're answering
Unknown:is incredible. Yeah, you know, you can see photos, you can see videos, but to be an underneath the Aurora. That's that's the best. Yeah. Always tell everyone come to Alaska to see the aurora. Yes, yeah.
Jennie Flaming:It's worth it. Totally worth it. Can you imagine ever so you've been looking at the Aurora for 24 years? Yes. Can you imagine ever getting to a point where you just didn't care about it anymore. No,
Unknown:I can't. I can't. I'm passionate, you know, I'm passionate about what I do. You know me? Jennie, yes, yeah, I got to the nickname of Aurora Dora because that's my happy place. Yeah, you know, I'm happy when I'm photographing. I'm happy when I'm doing presentations about Aurora, you know, as a keynote or whatever, yeah, or at the gallery, talking to people and educating about the Northern Lights. For me, my happy place is being surrounded by the lights. Yeah,
Jennie Flaming:absolutely. Do you in the summer? Do you find yourself like waiting for the lights to come back, or do you just kind of table it for the summer and lean into summer?
Unknown:I feel not. I'm the only person that counts days to start getting dark. Everyone in Alaska is excited about summer and yes, three months without seeing the stars drive me crazy, yes, and then you know it. I don't know if it people realize how much light we have in our summers, and I know decentral attitude in Alaska will have different light and dark, yes, but in talking now, you know, after May 10, you don't have any dark. You have, you know, you have a little Twilight, yeah, and that Twilight is shrinking, shrinking, shrinking. And when you get to you know, may 20, may not even the end on me, we are in daylight all the time. The sun will set around midnight and will rise about four. But even with the sun setting, the sun in Alaska never goes above the sky like above our head, the top of the head, like you see in a, you know, in a tropical place or whatever, and all in the continental US that you see the the sun high in the sky. Yes. In Asuka, the sun is always around us. Then the sun sets very shallow, close to the horizon, about one or two degrees close to the horizon, and rises again and it's daylight. Is called civil twilight, Yep, yeah, we do have three different Twilights on a planet. I don't know if anyone ever explained that in your podcast. Jennie,
Jennie Flaming:you know, Dora, I don't think that we have talked about that. So why don't you explain that? Because this is something that, even for people who aren't interested in photography, is very disorienting about Alaska in the summer, especially, right? Is exactly the things that you're talking about. So I would love to have you explain that. That'd be great.
Unknown:Okay, then the, you know, we have a three different Twilights before we get to real deep night. The first Twilight is when the sun sets below the horizon between zero and six degrees only. That's called the civil twilight. Then it's, you know, just after the sunset, when you can see everything around you, you don't need any light on that the civil twilight, yep. Then after that comes nautical twilight, and that's when the sun goes below the horizon, six to 12 degrees. And that's you will need the light, and you know, to be seen. And you start seeing a few stars at that point, yep. Then after you have astronomical twilight, the sun is 12 to 18 degrees below the horizon, and you have a dark. Is not a completely dark, yet you only have astronomic dark after 18 degrees, you know, below that? Yeah, really dark, and that's what we have in in a winter maps, yes,
Jennie Flaming:yeah, yeah. And I'm glad you explained that, Dora, about the degrees and the sort of height of the sun above the horizon during the day as well, because that's also what makes that Twilight so long in Alaska, whether it's winter or summer, because the sun is at that angle that makes it you know, if you're like in the Caribbean, the sun sets and it's dark, you know, it's like it goes through all of those stages so fast. But in Alaska, you know, what you just described as the entire night in the summer. I recently, I recently passed my FAA drone pilot exam and became a legal drone pilot. And yeah, it was, it was a process and but one of the things that you have to know for the test is about the definition of civil twilight, right? But the FAA defines it as the 30 minutes before sunrise or after sunset and and I was like, FAA, that is much longer than 30 minutes everywhere I live, whatever, that's what you have to do, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you know, because both Seattle and, you know Fairbanks and you know all of those places, civil twilight is much more than half an hour.
Unknown:Yeah, it's different. It is different, yeah. Oh, love
Jennie Flaming:it. Okay, we're gonna take a short break, and when we come back, we will talk more with Dora about her photography and her business in Talkeetna. Hi everyone. I hope you're enjoying this episode so far. Just wanted to let you know about some other awesome things I have that can help you plan your trip. So first of all, if you are traveling to Alaska in 2025 don't miss out on getting one of the beautiful stickers that Jay has designed, and they're in my shop, which is shop dot ordinary dash adventures.com, you can also find the link in the show notes. And in addition to that, I've also got a bunch of pre made itineraries for you there. Got my on demand workshops that you can use to help plan your trip, and my planners as well. So all kinds of great resources for you. There, it's shop, dot ordinary adventures.com, use the code podcast to save 10% as an Alaska uncovered listener in my shop, so head on over there. The link is in the show notes, and once again, that's shop. Dot ordinary. Dash adventures.com. Now back to the show. All right, I am back with Aurora Dora, Dora Redman, and she is here sharing about her story, her journey, immigrating from Sao Paulo in Brazil to talkita, and the life she built in Talkeetna in her tiny, dry airframe cabin. So Dora, I'd love to hear a little bit about how and when you opened your gallery in Talkeetna. And before you answer that, listeners, if you are going to Talkeetna, even if you're not going to talkeena, consider changing your mind so that you can go to take that because not only is it a great place to visit with amazing views of Danielle, but you have to go to Dora's gallery. It's so I just it's just such a cool space. It's very small in a cabin, and I feel Dora like when you go inside, it can be a sunny July day with months and months from darkness, and when you go in there, all your incredible photos almost make it feel like you're getting an aurora experience. I mean, it's not the same as seeing it for yourself, but it's pretty cool. And also I'll just tell you that it's really fun to go in there and just chat with Dora. As you could tell, she has lots of great stories she loves to share. So tell me a little bit about how you got the vision for the gallery that you have and when you built that. Okay,
Unknown:I'm gonna you know, everything started like I said. I decided to hold my camera full time and start photographing Alaska and building my portfolio. And as I build my portfolio, I started doing some shows like markets like the Saturday market in Anchorage. That was a lot of work being there, you know, driving all the way to talkita, putting a tent together, yeah. But as you you talk with, you know, the customer, the public, they tell you what they like. That was one and the other thing is, also I was learning about tonight photography, and that's a skill that you know, you have a learning curve. And at the moment of the beginning, I was shooting with film. This is not digital cameras, right? And going through the learning curve was very, very exciting. It's so challenging. That was at that point when I finally, you know, got to very skilled on my night photography with my film cameras. Then I changed to digital, because I felt that I was feeling that digital could, you know, what's achieving even more than what I was doing with my films,
Jennie Flaming:yeah. And, when did you make that transition? What year did you make the transition from?
Unknown:No, I started doing that transition. Like 2010
Jennie Flaming:I would say, Yep, yeah.
Unknown:And, but, you know, slowly, because I again, I had another learning curve, yeah, I was switching to digital, probably about 2007 2008 okay? Because at the point, you know, I did the years and years of the Saturday market in Anchorage, and then I started doing the artisan open air market. That was a market that we had in talking that was on Fridays to Sundays or Saturdays to Mondays, I don't know. We're three days a week. I think Fridays, yeah and yeah. And I had my booth at the market for all three days. And at that point I was already with, you know, many of my night photographers, my Aurora images and a booth, and I also had wildlife and landscapes, and I noticed a big shift that all the the tourists, the travelers, they were Not interested on my landscapes and wildlife. They were intrigued with the, you know, the aspects of my Northern Lights and my astral landscapes, because I just, you know, I don't photograph just the sky, yeah, usually they have a landscaped with creating the whole composition. And I think people really feel attracted to because they can feel how they would be underneath them. Yes, on a on that scene,
Jennie Flaming:Yep, yeah, I agree. I To me, that's something I think is really special about your photos. Dora, is not only are they beautiful photos of the night sky or the Aurora. Those, those other things that are in the photo that, like the, I love, the one with the airplane in it, you know, things like that, that, just like you said, really just brings someone into the scene. I really think that's a really beautiful thing about your photos. Thank you.
Unknown:Thank you. Jennie, Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for letting me know that you feel like you are seeing the words when you enter my gallery. Yeah, yeah, because that's special to meet you I have I tried to give exactly that impression, but anyway, I'm gonna go back to the story. Yes, the artisan opener market, and I was for seven years doing that. I got to be managed the market. And, you know, the little cabin where I have the gallery is called the three bachelors, the three German bachelor's cabin. And it's a historical building. It was built in 1934 and as part of the Historical Society. And then the Historical Society had that building available, and I wrote the whole proposal that I was, you know, to open the gallery there, in a sense of that I also do the educational side is not just a gallery or, Yes, yep, yeah. And I love doing this educational side of it, because for me, it's super, super interesting, you know, to share what I know. And yeah, I'm I really love giving that part. You know, the to share what I know it's important, yes, yeah, yeah. And then I was, they accepted my proposal, and I opened the gallery in 2013 and their location before, okay, I was at the artisan open our market.
Jennie Flaming:Yes, yes. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, cool. And
Unknown:through the gallery, you know, I, I have, I love the thing that is all log cabin is really very much talkitana, yes, talkita, yes. Smells like talkit now. It's pretty special, little
Jennie Flaming:cabin. Yes, and you can't miss it. It's like right there next to the Welcome to downtown Talkeetna sign, yes. I mean, almost right next to
Unknown:pink. You can't miss but a lot of people miss my little cabin, really, yeah, because the cabin is 20 feet away from the main drag. Yeah, yeah, I guess the door is sideways, not doesn't face the street.
Jennie Flaming:Yes, that's true. That's good point. Yeah. Then
Unknown:I put that boardwalk, and then people can see my gallery. And I also think that everyone need to have access to my gallery.
Jennie Flaming:Yeah, absolutely, yes. I have
Unknown:all the handicap parking in talking. I in front of my gallery too. Oh,
Jennie Flaming:I didn't know that. That's awesome. Yeah, perfect. That's great. And I will also say like, you know, I have an awesome pair of earrings that I bought in in Dora's gallery. So it's it like that are beautiful northern lights earrings. So, yes, you have amazing photos, but you also have things like that. So there's a lot of fun stuff to see in there. Yeah,
Unknown:I think it's important to, if I can, at least, you know, someone, take with them a little memory. Yeah, and it can be a postcard. It can be earrings, or, you know, candles. I don't know, everything that you will see in my gallery will be Aurora related, that's for sure, yeah, you know, from big pieces of art to small pieces, something will you find there? Yeah, oh, I have even a new release for this year. Jennie, ooh, what is it? Yeah, I have an incredible soap maker that she's from Willow that she has goats, and she's making a special go, a special goat soap that is going to be sold only in Aurora. Dora,
Jennie Flaming:how, how fun. Yeah,
Unknown:we love it. Yeah, we we talk the whole winter, and she figure out how the Aurora needed to smell. I'm very curious to smell Aurora. Now I'm really,
Jennie Flaming:yeah, me too, for sure. Oh, I can't wait to come in and smell it. That'll be something to look forward to.
Unknown:Yes, it's always something new. But I love it. I love being out. I love photographs. Fan, I had incredible images this last, you know, season, yeah, I don't know if you, if you heard about but that was, I got the three very important awards.
Jennie Flaming:No, I didn't know. Tell us about that. Yeah,
Unknown:I was first I was invited to participate in it's a competition call it 1839 that is looking for the Photographer of the Year. 1839 is where photography started. That's why that's the name of that award. Oh,
Jennie Flaming:okay, that makes sense. And they,
Unknown:you know, contacted me and said, We are waiting for you to put your photos on it. And it was quite interesting, you know, I didn't expect too much. You have the whole world participating and something like that. And then in November, I learned that I received three awards as Photographer of the Year. Those three awards were all People's Choice in all in other words, people went to the website and voted for my images. Oh yeah. It was like I was I was just in shock. And, you know, I received for the landscape side, many of my roars were selected. There was a theory of five images on a tourism, you know, travel side also, and as nature, then I was, I was in shock, really, of like, I love what I do. I know I have a great work, but I I will always be just a Dora. You know, that person that loves photographing, loves being under the Aurora, and sometimes when people come to me and say, Hey, you are famous, that is, I don't know how to answer to that,
Jennie Flaming:yeah. I can Yeah, yeah. I can imagine that. I don't know how
Unknown:to answer dudes like, you know, I saw your image used by NASA. I said, Yeah, they do, you know, it's like, um, yeah. It's interesting. And, and, and, I don't know I will, I will never be. I'm just Dora, yeah, I know
Jennie Flaming:you are.
Unknown:I'm just Aurora Dora, yeah. Aurora Dora,
Jennie Flaming:yeah. Um, so Dora, before we wrap up today, and congratulations, by the way, on those awards. That is really cool. Um, I would love to know since, since we've you live in tell kitna, and we've been talking about Talkeetna, I'd love to know if you have any favorite restaurants that you would like to recommend to folks in Tokyo.
Unknown:Oh my gosh, okay. Um, yes, I do. I have all them are my favorite restaurants.
Jennie Flaming:And I'm going to just say, objectively, as a person who does not live in Talkeetna, that Talkeetna is a tiny community, and it has a lot of great food. It really does, yeah,
Unknown:exactly, because talking is a small community, it's important for us to always go to different places. And you know, we have, let me count, let me think about we have about seven or eight restaurants in talking now, uh huh, yeah, and I don't, and I'm trying to, don't talk about, you know, the the summers that we have the spinach bread and stuff like this. I'm thinking, you know, restaurants that are great, yeah, physically year round, yeah, yep. Or, you know, or they're, they're a whole house, solid, yes, right? Um, each one of the restaurants, in talking, I know their menu quite well, because they are the only restaurants that we have, yes, and each one of them, I have a favorite dish for me is, like, I love them all. How can I just do one then, yeah, to be like the most, you know, I'm gonna be like the most simple, I think the closest to my heart, because it's also closest to my home. Ah, yes. Is the Denali brewing the tasting room that is a mile too.
Jennie Flaming:Yes. So Dora, can you explain how that's different from the brew pub that's in downtown? Tell kitna, yes,
Unknown:I can. Okay, you know, is the same beer that is. Is produced there. That is the brewery. There's the tasting room. They serve their salads and pizzas. And the pizzas are excellent. And if you have a problem with gluten, they do incredible. Gluten Free, yeah, do you? You know, cheese bread? Oh my gosh, they do so much good stuff. And you know, the gluten free is really tasty, yes, yeah. It's important for me to say that so many people are gluten free nowadays, yeah, yeah,
Jennie Flaming:yeah. And that can be, I mean, not so much in bigger towns, but in rural areas, finding good gluten free or vegetarian options can be kind of challenging, yeah, so I agree with you about Jenelle brewing not being a great a great option for that, yeah?
Unknown:But you know, I love them all. I love the Flying Squirrel, the talking Alaskan Lodge, lettuce to oh my gosh, the best fries in talking. And I think they are a latitude, the kahit na Bistro, the brew pub of obvious, you know, I like the homestead, okay. I like them all. Mountain High, pizza pie, yeah. I like them, yeah.
Jennie Flaming:They're all, I know they're all really good, yeah.
Unknown:Oh, that's so young, yeah,
Jennie Flaming:um,
Unknown:can I Okay, I don't know if you have something else to ask, but I do want to tell a story, and I have a couple pointers that I would give to the tourists coming to Alaska. Well, you
Jennie Flaming:know what, Dora? First of all, I would never not want to hear any of your stories. And number two, the last question I was going to ask you is, what would be your advice for people coming to Alaska? So you've played right into my game here. Okay, but go for it.
Unknown:You know? The first thing is, when you come to Alaska, give time. Give time to yourself, give time to drive. Give time to see stuff. I see many tourists that you know, they think they can see Alaska in seven days. Yeah, it's impossible. I have a 24 years in Alaska, and I didn't see it all. Yeah, take your time and remember that distance in Alaska, when you look on a map, Alaska is ginormous, not just large. It's ginormous. Then when you think that driving, when you look at that map, and you compare with your state, and you think it's going to be a half an hour drive is not it's going to be about four hours. And you need to consider that during the summer months, we have road construction, Yep, yeah. Then take your time. And, you know, try to see the maximum that you can but remember to give time to you to your drive to time for you to enjoy and appreciate where you're seeing too. Yeah, maybe do more than one trip to Alaska. That is my best recommendation for sure. Yeah, yeah. My other point is, and this, I always get that a lot at the gallery, is when to come to Alaska to see the Northern Lights?
Jennie Flaming:Yeah, yeah. How would you answer that? Yeah,
Unknown:um, you know, summer is not that that the time of the year, of course, but in toquiet. Now, you know, every place in Alaska, depending of the latitude, we increase the darkness, we'll start having darkness in a different time. Okay, yep. Then if you are in Anchorage by August 7, you have a couple hours of night. Night that I refer is night with dark in talkit now would be by August 14, right in Fairbanks by August 20, that is usually the beginning of the aurora season. For those locations, you do have a possibility of seeing Aurora, you know, a little earlier than that. But I'm trying to say solid dark when I'm referring to those dates, yep. Then if you are coming in a summer and you want to see Aurora coming up end of, you know, end of August, or until the middle of September, or September, you know, or anytime after that, yep, now the best time to see auroras, I always recommend close to the equinox. That would be, you know, fall and spring, we usually have more solar activity that produces the Northern Lights close to the equinoxes, and also is not as cold as mid winter.
Jennie Flaming:So. Yes, yeah, yes.
Unknown:Love it. Now, if I have time, I have a story to tell that, you know, everyone always ask about, you know, me chasing a war of photographing. What is the story that marked me the most? Yes, tell us I was a night. I was photographing in January, in 2013 It was January 9. I will never forget that day, and I was doing a beautiful photo. And I have that image on my gallery. Jennie, I'm sure you saw that before. Yeah, two silhouettes of trees. Has two trees, just a silhouette, a frozen lake behind it, a Milky Way and Aurora. And I spend hours waiting for the Milky Way to move from the left side of the trees to in between those two trees to do the shot, and I love that image. Let's call it a colorful winter night. Oh, love it. After I did that image, I decided to go to the other side of the lake to photograph the whole arch of the aurora above the lake. And I drove my car to a place that I knew I had a trail to go down to the lake. And I got to the lake, I looked and I had some trails from we call a snow machine. They call
Jennie Flaming:Yeah, I most other places in the US call it a snowmobile, snowmobile, yeah, but I call it a snow machine also, but that's because I lived in Alaska. Yeah,
Unknown:yeah. We call snow machine anyway. And look at the trail off of the snow machine or snowmobile, and look to see if it had any, you know, water on the trail. It was a very cold January that was about 35 below that night. But even though chilly, pay attention, you know, you Yeah. Then I walked down that trail of one of those machines and went to the middle of the lake, and I set up my tripod, very solid. I'm doing longer exposures then I need to have a very solid tripod. Put all my camera equipment I have, you know, backpack and camera, set up everything, and then I moved my foot about one inch to the right side, and the ice broke. And there I was, holding myself on my tripod with water to under my arms.
Jennie Flaming:That is terrifying. Dora, that is terrifying.
Unknown:I know that. Oh, my God, days I can laugh. And you know, I'm here telling the story. Sure, good. You know, I have a good end to my story. But anyway, which is good there I was soaked, and I'm gonna tell you, is incredible in a moment that you fall in the water, yeah, you can't breathe, right? Yeah, your your body, like, Shut stuff. It's incredible. Yeah, for me, was interesting because at that time, I was homeschooling my son, and a week before, we had a homeschool group meeting, teaching about the safety in water and cold water, and I had to learn about what I needed to do. And the first thing I did is, like, it's obvious. I said some bad words, oh yeah, that's okay. And then I thought, oh my gosh, I pushed my limit, yeah. And I start thinking, Okay, what I need to do? I need to breathe, and I need to think. Then I kept commanding my body to breathe and to think. Think, what do you need to do? Breathe? Cuz, you know, your body gets in shock. It's so it's crazy. Yeah. Anyway, I was thinking, and I tried to put my knee, my left knee over the ice to, you know, raise myself, yeah, as I did that, the ice kept cracking. I could hear the ice cracking, and I'm there holding myself on my tripod, right?
Jennie Flaming:So your tripod was still on top of the ice, and you were holding on to it, like you were in the movie Titanic or something.
Unknown:Uh huh, exactly. I'm there, you know, holding myself on my tripod. Yes,
Jennie Flaming:oh man,
Unknown:I needed to lay down my tripod and roll my. Self over the tripod to spread my weight to cracking the ice. Yes, that's what I need to do. And it was what I did. And then when I got out of the water, it was like an instant I was frozen solid. Oh yeah,
Jennie Flaming:yeah. How far away from the car were you and
Unknown:about three quarters of a mile. Oh yeah. It suddenly feels very I was out of the water. Jennie, that was okay, you know, the problem was being in the water and being in that situation that is like, okay, in the spring, they're gonna found my car, you know, right, yeah, yeah. And it wasn't shocked, because, you know, this is 35 below, yeah. Oh, how the ice would break, yeah. Anyway, it does happen. I came to learn later that that lake where I was had some springs. Ah, yeah, I was exactly above a spring, yep. And yeah, if I would play, you know, play on a lottery that day, I would win a lottery, I'm sure, right, you know, I hit exactly on the top of the spring. But anyway, I came out from the water, and I was afraid that I was going to post another hole in the eyes, right? I will not run, but at the same time, I wasn't walking because I was afraid. And I'm finally, you know, I got to where I knew the lake was not there anymore. I was on the shore right, and I could see that I was breathing very, very shallow. Yeah, it was, yeah. That was stressful. And I walked to my car, turned on my engine, and drove home, went to what I thought was a very hot shower, and I'm sure was cold, but it's okay. The most impressive thing is, in a moment that I got completely frozen solid, I was not feeling cold. Jennie,
Jennie Flaming:yeah, hot, right? Which is scary, because that means you're hypothermic, yeah, yeah.
Unknown:But I, you know, I didn't know. I didn't know what to imagine. And 12 hours after all this, when I was home, safe, warm dress, having hot tea, and that really I assimilated what had happened. Yeah, yeah. It was incredible. Then my, my other thing that I have to say to anyone that decided to brave Alaska and come photograph. Don't do this alone. Yeah, I'm with someone else. I photograph alone. I have been doing this all those years, but I don't step in ice anymore. You were gonna see me on a lake, yeah? You will see me on the shore, not only not, yeah, nobody, no, yeah, have a tag team. Have someone with you,
Jennie Flaming:Yep, yeah, it's definitely good advice, recommendation
Unknown:for any of our guests that come to Alaska, yeah. I think, I think that's my biggest point.
Jennie Flaming:Yeah, that's really important. I just want to let you know that I'm going to put in the show notes a link to Dora's gallery. So that'll tell you kind of where to find her, in Tel kita, but you can also look and see some of her amazing photos on her website. So definitely check that out. And as she said, in addition to photos, she also does workshops and education programs there as well. So definitely check that out. Dora, thank you so much for joining me today.
Unknown:Oh, thank you. Jennie, I loved it.
Jennie Flaming:Hey, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Dora. I wanted to let you know that Dora is happy to give you 10% off her metal print if you go to her gallery in person, so not online, but if you go into your cabin and meet her, tell her that you heard her here on the podcast, and she'll give you 10% off one of those metal prints. Super awesome. See you next week. You
