Adelies in the fog

Canon 7D, 17-40f4L @ 40mm, 1/640th @ f4.0, ISO 200

After our sunny morning exploring the peaks, and crags of Devil Island we motored off in the Polar Star to our first landing on Antarctica proper at the far northern tip of the peninsula, Brown Bluff.

The name Brown Bluff doesn't really do the place justice. The "bluff" is actually a 1000 foot cliff that shoots up a short distance from the beach. Snow and Pintado Petrels nest in the rock crevices and are constantly coming and going. Several thousand pairs of Adelie Penguins nest in a colony that reaches up the talus slope below the cliffs. Gentoo Penguins and Kelp Gulls occupy the boulders that are scattered up and down the gravel beach.

Since my first visit to the place in 2003, Brown Bluff has been among my favorites. Perhaps because it was the first place I encountered Adelies, or maybe because it was the first time I set foot on the great southern continent. Or maybe its just a remarkable place.

We arrived in cloudy, windless conditions, but as the afternoon went on, a fog bank rolled in from the north. First, as I zodiac cruised with a group of clients around the icebergs it began swallowing up the distant bergs, then the closer ones.

Back on shore, a short time later, I was photographing the penguins coming and going from the colony. They were splashing in and out of the water. The cold, foggy light made for challenging, but interesting, photography. It was a perfect chance for wide-angle work as the penguins popped from the water just feet away. The image above I snapped from a prone position on the beach. It's dark, but so was the day. This image reminds me of what the day felt like. The cold rock under me, the fog bank rolling in, graying the skies in the background, the icebergs floating like ghosts in water as gray as the sky.

Canon 7D, 17-40 f4L @40mm, 1/250th, f8.0, ISO 200, handheld from Zodiac

This second image was made during the short zodiac cruise around the bergs. The fog bank in the background made the blues in this berg pop like fireworks.

This is why I love the Antarctic. Every time the weather changes (which it does, almost constantly), the colors change, they brighten and soften, landscape elements appear and disappear. Even the wildlife seems to change. Penguins go from cute and clutzy birds to emblems of survival at the edge of what's possible.

Ice Becomes Us

Canon 7D, 70-200f2.8L IS @200mm, 1/800th sec @ f8.0, handheld from ship's deck

Now we bid a fond farewell to South Georgia and head south into the colder and icier waters surrounding Antarctica.

Before we arrived at the great southern continent we first made a short detour into the very isolated South Orkney Islands. The Orkneys are a small, mountainous and heavy glaciated archipeligo that pop out of the southern ocean about halfway between South Georgia and Antarctica proper.

The weather absolutely sucked.

Though there was some dramatic light when we first arrived at the islands early in the morning, I was fast asleep and missed it. Patrick Endres, of course, didn't miss it and got a couple of incredible images. (Click HERE to check them out). By the time we pulled into Coronation Island's Shingle Cove the wind was howling.

And it just got worse.

Cheesemans' Safaris makes more effort to get people on shore, than any company I've ever encountered. And despite heavily gusting winds, we went to shore. It was cold and rainy and windy and nasty.

Oh, and there were penguins too. Our first Adelies of the trip.

Canon 7D, 70-200f2.8L IS w/ 1.4TC, 1/500th, f4, ISO 200

I hardly made any photos while on shore that morning, I was much too distracted by the weather, riding ballast in otherwise empty zodiacs (to keep them from flipping in the 70mph gusts), and tending to very cold clients. Some people however were clicking away happily, I just wasn't one of them.

When we finally all made it back to the ship, safe and sound. We headed away from the island running with the wind into newly sunny skies. And there we encountered icebergs, lots of them. That day I made some of my favorite images of icebergs. The gray storm skies in the background and sunlit bergs made for incredible light.

The ice just made everything feel like...well it just felt like Antarctica.

Probably because that is where we were headed.