Antarctica’s luminous night light

Southern giant storm petrel soars over the iceberg laden waters of the western Antarctic Peninsula. Canon 5D Mark III, 100-400mm f/5.6, 1/500 sec @ f/14, ISO 400.

I’ve just returned from a 16 day voyage from Ushuaia, Argentina to the Antarctic Peninsula with Cheesmans’ Ecology Safaris. As staff for Cheesemans on board the Russian Icebreaker “Ortelius”, the days were long and jammed full of logistical preparations and shore landings at many well known, and many less frequently visited landing sites. Overall, the weather was luminous, with many sun spangled days. The 2 day crossing from Argentina to the Antarctic Peninsula, including the potentially formidable Drake Passage was very calm, as we just squeezed through between storm spells. Besides an unfriendly sickness that dented 8 of our 12 staff (including me), it was another great experience of a truly wild and magical landscape. As is often the case in life in general, and certainly in nature, being there is the gateway to experience. The more time one spends exploring the natural world, the more the odds go up for those highly memorable moments. I’ve had a few special ones in my life and this trip to Antarctica included another one to add to the list. One of those sacred experiences where animals seem to be communicating with you. I’ll share about that in a later post as the endeavor of processing images unfolds.