Well, that’s it! One small suitcase of all-weather clothing, and four large bags of camera gear are packed and ready to go. Four weeks of intense shooting awaits, but if the current weather prevails, I will be getting a lot of time to read. I just got two new books on photojournalism, a collection of essays by Vicki Goldberg, biographies of Norwegian greats Roald Amundsen and Edvard Munch, and of course, a new stable of Glenn Gould CDs. Plan A and plan B are covered! Plan C is to kick back, relax and enjoy the Arctic scenery and company of great people.

By noon tomorrow I’ll be on my way. The most important part of the journey, except for the pint of beer as soon as I’m airborne, will be putting a great plan together. I have a book full of sketches for what I want to do, but now I need to systemize those into a tight schedule. With all the places, people and things I plan to cover, it’s simply not doable any other way. Dispatches from the field will follow… Stay tuned!