ANTARCTIC DREAMS

MOVING OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE

Beyond words. Beyond my imagination. Was I dreaming?

In 2014 I had an amazing adventure to Antarctica. Only three weeks before departure, I was asked to replace an instructor who was unable to go. Lucky me! The tour started in Chile, and from there we flew to Antarctica rather than crossing the Drake Passage by ship. We photographed along the Antarctic Peninsula for five days, and I made 10,000 frames. The shooting conditions were challenging, as we were often photographing from our moving zodiacs or ship, which necessitated insurance frames. I photographed without a tripod, and with little time to deliberate on each composition. Handholding with two cameras around my neck, one with a wide-angle zoom and another with a telephoto zoom, was a constant struggle. I was definitely out of my slow-paced, “landscapes on a tripod” comfort zone.

While adapting to the flow of this type of photography, I learned to watch carefully to see when the confluence of foreground elements such as icebergs aligned dynamically with the mountains and glaciers in the background. When I photograph on land with a tripod, I am always shuffling my feet—sideways, back and forth—to find the most interesting alignments. Now I was dealing with one-way, steady, lateral motion, so I was able to anticipate these alignments while looking ahead from the boats. When I found a stunning iceberg, I would also look for wildlife flying or swimming along to add an accent of scale. We were constantly seeing wildlife, including seals, penguins, and whales. It took good timing, a burst of exposures, and a good image-stabilization system to catch the action. The experience was sometimes frustrating, but mostly exhilarating.

Gentoo Penguin and Two Chicks | Cuverville Island, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica | 2014

What follows illustrates a typical day on the trip. Our dawn photography along the Lemaire Channel began at 3:30 a.m., photographing from the ship as we cruised past volcanic peaks blanketed with glaciers cascading to the sea. After dropping anchor, our zodiac cruise in Pléneau Bay began at 5:30 a.m. This area is also known as the iceberg graveyard, where both large, tabular icebergs and older, rolled icebergs have found this backwater bay. One of the highlights of this session was photographing the iceberg shown on the previous spread with its amazing shapes and arch. We floated slowly past as our very excited group blazed away. Each inch of motion changed our camera positions, altering the relationship of each curve and line and arch opening.

Many factors needing rapid analysis were distractions in the foreground, such as bits of ice; depth of field, especially if we were including a large area of foreground; and the shutter speed, as we needed to ensure a sharp image on a moving boat, with moving water ripples, and motion caused by six to eight photographers trying to photograph all at once. Even without wildlife in the photograph, setting the highest frame rate on our cameras was nearly essential to guarantee some sharp frames. Our zodiac drivers/guides were exceptional at helping us find great photographic opportunities.

After our early morning zodiac cruise, while we had breakfast, our ship relocated to Yalour Islands. It felt like we’d had a full day already, but when we landed to see a colony of Adelie penguins there, it was only 9:00 a.m. A short walk led us to grand views of the nearby mountains and glaciers, with penguins and their chicks in the foreground. The pace was leisurely now as we walked along a route laid out by our guides. While all of us kept the proper distance from the penguins, if we were still and patient, a few of these curious characters would approach within a few feet. Whether we photographed or not, this experience was priceless.

Since we had such an outstanding experience on our early morning iceberg cruise, our leaders decided to return for a sunset session. We all boarded our zodiacs for an epic evening of golden light and the surreal shapes of sculpted icebergs. The summer sunset of Antarctica lasted for two hours.

The day of January 30 started with the first image made at 3:45 a.m., and the last image made at 11:00 p.m., on the most spectacular day of photography I have ever experienced. A sweet Antarctic dream . . .

Blue Icebergs | Cierva Cove, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica | 2014

Clearing Autumn Storm | Yosemite National Park, California | 2013