Posts Tagged ‘icebergs’

Iceland’s Ice

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

Vatnajökull Glacier Lagoon

You would be surprised.  Iceland doesn’t have that much ice.  The landscape is green in many places as you can see from the pictures in my previous posts.  However, if you come all the way to Iceland you need to find some ice so off we went to the Vatnajökull Glacier… and look… we found ice :)

Vatnajökull Glacier Lagoon in Jokulsarlon

The Vatnajökull Glacier is the largest glacier by volume in Europe.  The second largest is in Svalbard, Norway which we also visited later during our Europe trip (more on that later).

Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon

The glacier lagoon in Jökulsárlón is a great photo destination.  Huge pieces of the glacier calve off into this lagoon before they float out to sea and eventually melt.  You can even take a cruise out into the lagoon to get up close and personal with the icebergs.  The bergs weren’t as big as what we saw in Antarctica but still impressive none the less.

Climbing on the Vatnajökull Glacier

Our next stop on the ice tour in Iceland was to do some ice climbing on the Vatnajökull Glacier in Skaftafell National Park with Icelandic Mountain Guides.  We were booked to do ice climbing but the eruption of Grimsvotn volcano in May, 2011 rained ash down all over the glacier.  The ash made the glacier very dirty and would have gunked up the climbing gear possibly ruining it or at worst making it unsafe.  So, we did the Full Day Adventure Tour instead which turned out to be a great tour.

I was initially pretty disappointed that we couldn’t go ice climbing and that the glacier was dirty.  I really like taking photos of the vivid blue colors glaciers have.  However, the dirty glacier had an interesting look and I got some unique pictures.

A Dirty Vatnajökull Glacier

While we didn’t get to go ice climbing we did get to use crampons and ice axes on our glacier hike which at least made us look cool.

All geared up on the Vatnajökull glacier

We also had a brief chance to rappel down into a in moulin.  This may not look dangerous but moulins are holes that go straight down to the bottom of the glacier.  The depth of the glacier around here is over 400 meters.  Good thing the guides at Icelandic Mountain Guides know what they are doing because that is my wife on the end of the rope.

Rappelling into a Moulin

After a hard day of seeking out ice in Iceland a visit to the famous Blue Lagoon was a welcomed treat.  It’s a little pricey to get in but it’s one of things you must do if you visit iceland.  Don’t forget to smear the silica mud on your face.  It’s suppose to have healing powers for various skin ailments… even if you don’t have a skin problem it still feels pretty good and looks even funnier.

Blue Lagoon Iceland

Rule #1 of portrait photography. Don't use a wide angle lens up close to your subject. Sorry Miki :)

Lastly, need to give a shout out to our trusty little Toyota Yaris that got us around in our search for Icelandic ice in style… well… maybe not in style but at least it got us around.

Toyota Yaris in Iceland

 

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Antarctica – 12/26 – Port Lockroy & Cuverville Island

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

Penguin in front of Port Lockroy

We visited Port Lockroy in the morning.  Port Lockroy was a British base in Antarctica from 1944 to the mid 60s.  It was then abandoned and fell into disrepair until the British Antarctic Heritage Trust stepped in to restore the base.  It is restored very well and shows how some of the early scientists lived in Antarctica.  It’s only staffed during the summer months.  It’s pretty isolated but the 4 girls on the island get plenty of ships coming in to visit.  They also have a couple thousand penguins and beautiful landscapes to keep them occupied.

Port Lockroy Landscape

It also serves as a post office and has a nice little gift shop.  Yep, there is a even a gift shop in Antarctica where you can buy crappy souvenirs that your wife will save for years.

After Miki mailed her postcard we were off to Cuverville Island.  This island had some amazing landscapes and I went a little crazy with the panoramic shots.

Cuverville Island Panoramic

Cuverville Island Panoramic

We spent most of the time on Cuverville just sitting on the beach watching the penguins coming in and out of the water.  We’ve spent so much of the trip running from one side of an island to the other but just sitting there on the beach was one of the best experiences.  It also provided some of the best chances to photograph even more penguins.

Gentoo Penguin - water beads

Gentoo Penguin

Gentoo Penguin running out of the water

There was also a large group of male Skuas about that were making a lot of noise.  Lots of fighting, flapping of wings and just general chaos.  The penguins didn’t seem so bothered by this group probably because they focused on showing off to the other skuas rather that eating penguins.

Skua

Miki bought these penguin socks and for the whole trip she kept telling me she wanted to get a photo of her socks next to the penguins.  After realizing she wasn’t joking I got a couple shots for her.

Penguin Socks

This was our last day on the Antarctic continent so we wanted to squeeze every last second we could out of our time on the island.  I was able to get a few last landscapes in before the final Zodiac left.

B&W Cuverville Island Landscape

B&W Cuverville Island Landscape

iceberg landscape

The final panoramic shot was taken with my infrared converted 30D.

Infrared Cuverville Panoramic

Daily Expedition Report and more pics after the break

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Antarctica – 12/25 – Lemaire Channel and Booth Island

Monday, January 31st, 2011

Lemaire Channel

This was a pretty spectacular christmas day.  We woke up when the expedition leader announced on the loudspeaker that we had a pod of killer whales off our bow.  Better than waking up to an alarm clock…

Entering the Lemaire Channel

We then headed into the Lemaire Channel.  The captain had heard earlier reports that it was too packed with ice and we couldn’t make it through.  When we approached the Lemaire Channel another ship, the Ushuaia, had already turned around.  We hadn’t seen another ship until now and we all were pretty disappointed because it seemed like we couldn’t make it through.

The Ushuaia turning back from the Lemaire Channel

However, the captain was determined to get through and through some skillful maneuvering and crashing through even more ice…

Captain maneuvering through the Lemaire Channel

We did eventually make it through the Lemaire Channel. To bad for the guests on the Ushuaia.  This is one of the many reasons to choose the NatGeo Explorer over the other ships that travels to Antarctica.  This ship has proven it can go were others can not.

Lemaire Channel

The Lemaire Channel had a lot of wildlife.  I felt a little bad sometimes when a seal would be taking a nap on an iceberg but was in our way.  The captain would try to maneuver around the seal but sometimes it just wasn’t possible.  This seal eventually slid off the iceberg and went to find a quieter place to take a nap.

Seal trying to take a nap in the sun

Miki taking a picture of me taking the above picture.

Miki taking a picture of me taking a picture of the Lemaire Channel

After making it through the Lemaire Channel we made it to Booth Island.  We had the most spectacular light with the most dramatic cloud cover.  We had some amazing penguin and seal spottings while out on the Zodiacs.  I shot over a 1000 pictures in one afternoon.  Don’t worry… I wont post them all.

The wildlife taken from a zodiac near Booth Island.

Yawning Seal

The 3 Penguins

Headless Penguin

Jumping Penguins

and for the dramatic iceberg shots of the day.

Antarctic Iceberg Landscape

Antarctic Iceberg Landscape

When we got back to ship a couple of people were referring to our boat as the big lens zodiac.  The shortest lens on our zodiac was a 400mm.  Antarctica tends to bring a well travelled crowd and most of the photographers on board have already been on safari (some several times) which requires some big glass.  Antarctica is no different.  The bigger and faster lens you can afford to bring down the better.

Big lens boat

While I was on the zodiac cruise with the Ira Block (the NatGeo photographer on board) and the other big lens crew, Miki went on a hike to the top of Booth Island.

Penguin Highway

Hiking on Booth Island

I also took a few pictures with my infrared converted 30D when we were travelling back through the Lemaire Channel.  My infrared camera spent most of the time in the camera bag because I’ve had limited success with it.  Even with the stunning landscape of Antarctica, I’m still not satisfied with the results.  Maybe I’m doing something wrong but I think simple black and white photos are much more appealing.

Antarctica in Infrared

Antarctica in Infrared

The daily expedition report and a few more photos after the break.

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Antarctica – 12/23 – Paulet Island & Joinville Island

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

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Today we made our way further into the Weddell sea to our morning destination of Paulet Island.  Paulet Island has an huge colony of Adelie penguins.  Over 100,000… penguins as far as the eye can see… and the smell to go with it.

Massive Colony of Adelie Penguins on Paulet Island

Paulet Island Panoramic Landscape

As with most days they split us up so some went on a Zodiac tour while the others went on land.  We went on the Zodiac tour first and got some great penguin shots.

It’s very hard to get a picture of a penguin jumping into the water…

Adelie penguins lining up to jump into the water

…but its darn near impossible to get one jumping out of the water.

Adelie penguin jumping out of the water onto an iceberg

Another one of the many nice touches that Lindblad does is the Hot Choco Zodiac.  We were out and about enjoying the scenery and taking pictures of penguins when our Zodiac driver asked if anyone wanted hot chocolate.  We turned around and saw this.  A very nice treat on a cold antarctic day.

Hot choco zodiac

The Brown Skua is a nasty little bird.  It is especially fond of young penguin chics and is really very skillful when working in pairs to catch one of the young chics.  One Skua usually distracts the parent while the other one goes in for the kill.  This Skua was just finishing off a penguin.

Skua eating a penguin

The penguins are obviously very wary of Skuas as you can see here.  He quickly ran away after seeing this guy even though the penguin was way to big for him to eat I don’t think he wanted to take any chances.

Penguin scared of Skua

One of my favorite birds is the Sheathbill.  This bird really does eat everything including invertebrates, dead seals, chics, eggs, and even feces.  The last of which has earned this bird the nickname of “shitbill”.

Sheathbill aka "shitbill"

We spotted a lot of different birds today.  Another beautiful bird is the Northern Giant Petrel.

Northern Giant Petrel

Wildlife photography isn’t the only reason to visit antarctica.  The landscapes are amazing.  You need to be careful not to get what people call “penguin tunnel vision”.  Take the time to look up and take in the surroundings.  Even put the camera down… at least for a minute because you don’t want to miss panos like this.

Weddell Sea Panoramic

But dont forget about the details.  Some of the most amazing shots can be found when you get up close.

Icicles

Below is the remains of the Nordenskjold Swedish Expedition from 1901 – 1904.  This is quite an amazing story.  You can get a brief  synopsis of their story on wikipedia.  It’s amazing that we are now able to travel to Antarctica without any of the hardship these explorers faced just 100 years ago.

Remains of the 1901-1904 Swedish Antarctic Expedition

After our visit to Paulet island we headed toward Joinville Island.  We had a choice to go ashore and do some hiking on Joinville island or go kayaking.  We choose kayaking.  It’s an amazing feeling to be kayaking so close to icebergs, penguins and seals and then to realize that you are actually in Antarctica.  A very peaceful afternoon.

Kayaking at Tay Head

After we finished kayaking at Tay Head we had to start heading back through the Antarctic sound and towards the western side of the Antarctica Peninsula.

On the way back we had another spotting of Orcas.

Pod of Killer Whales in the Weddell Sea

Orca bubbles

It’s hard to understand the scale of the things in Antarctica.  Even being there doesn’t really help you understand.  This tabular iceberg was probably taller than a 30 story building.  Even having the two Killer Whale fins in the foreground can’t show the true size of the iceberg.  The real amazing thing is the over 70% of the iceberg is still underwater.

Tabular Iceberg with Killer Whales

Daily Expedition Report by Karen Copeland and a few more pics after the break.

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Antarctica – 12/22 – Brown Bluff: Weddell Sea

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

Panoramic photo from Brown Bluff

Everyday in Antarctica keeps getting better and better.  Penguins, icebergs and the most amazing sunset (at 11:30pm).

Up close with an Adelie

The light during our landing at Brown Bluff wasn’t the greatest for photographing penguins.  It was high in the sky with no cloud cover to soften it.  Just like portraits of people, penguins need nice soft light for a good portrait photo.  However, even a bad day of light in Antarctica is a better day of light anywhere else in the world.

Gentoo penguin and chic

Two Adelie penguin chics

Adelie penguin with some beady little eyes!

On most days we are treated to time on land as well as a zodiac ride.  Zodiac rides are some of the best photographic opportunities because its very easy to get eye level with wildlife hanging out on icebergs.  I took this series of shots from a zodiac and then merged them together into one photo to show action.

Adelie penguin jumping into the water

After we left Brown Bluff we continued into the Weddell Sea.  As Jen wrote in the daily expedition report below, not many ships go this far south because they can’t handle the ice and they are not fast enough to make the journey there worth while.

Reflection of the bow on pancake ice in front of the ship

We were in our cabin taking a nap when all of the sudden the entire ship shook like we just collided with something.  We quickly put our cold weather gear on, grabbed the camera and headed for the bow.  I guess our captain never watched Titanic and learned you are supposed to steer clear of icebergs.  He seemed to have fun crashing right into them.  This was going to be a common occurrence for the rest of the trip and eventually we just slept through it.

NatGeo Explorer crashing into icebergs

For us, it was definitely worth while to make the trip this far into the Weddell Sea because we saw a juvenile emperor penguin which are very hard to find out on the pack ice.

Emperor Penguin

The daily expedition report for 12/22 is by Jen Labrecque,

Brown Bluff in the Weddell Sea

The Weddell Sea, Antarctic Sound, and beyond. This morning our expedition continued in an area of the Antarctic Peninsula where many ships do not go. The eastern side of the peninsula often sees more days of sunshine and blue skies, but the sea ice and strong winds keep many ships from venturing to this side. The lure of tabular icebergs and the less explored is something many of us, however, cannot ignore, so enter the Weddell Sea we did.

The towering cliffs of Brown Bluff were the first view many had this morning. Adelie penguins and some gentoo penguins have colonized the narrow strip of cobble and beach before the steep cliffs begin to rise. Walking to the edge of the first colony of Adelie penguins, many were thrilled to see that most adults sitting in a nest had a small chick sitting underneath them. While we watched and waited patiently, the adult would eventually stand up and adjust themselves, allowing a glimpse of the small new bird keeping warm under them.

The special and rare snow petrel soared above our heads, for this is a place they like to nest. The stunning white bird is the most southerly breeding bird in the world. They tend to stay near areas of pack ice, so the chance to see so many around was exciting. The cape petrels were in abundance as well. Large flocks of them gathered in a few areas around the landing. They were feeding in groups, looking for fish, squid and the ever-popular krill.

A scenic route back to the ship brought views of deep blue icebergs, tunnels passing through them, penguins perched on top and even some collapsing and rolling. It was good preparation for the afternoon spent cruising through the icebergs and sea ice as we headed deeper into the Weddell Sea. The ship crashed its way through the ice of the far south; it rocked and shook and people delighted in hanging over the bow and watching ice floes fracture and crack into pieces. The colossal tabular icebergs could be seen in all directions as well, with sides and a top so straight that they seemed man-made.

An evening spent cruising through the ice of the Weddell Sea—who would have ever imagined they would spend such a glorious, sunlit evening doing such a thing?
by Jen Labrecque

And the night was finished off by an amazing sunset at 11:30 pm.

Sunset in the Weddell Sea

and a few more from the day.

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