Last Day

Today is our last day on the peninsula and then we enter Drake and start our way home.

The entire ship is absolutely amped. We’ve traveled several days by air, spent two days crossing the Drake and have spent last five days learning the shoot in this alien environment. We, the photographers, are totally focused on capturing the best pictures we can in the last time available. Some of us have been up before breakfast to shoot, some of us have been up during the night to shoot in the strange twilight that passes for night here, and I am sure that some people have stayed up all night. Even the crew has picked up on it, as breakfast is a focused event with everyone thinking about today’s work.

We started the day shooting from the ship, as we headed north into the Errara channel. Once in the channel, the ship anchored and we prepared for our last zodiac trip of this adventure. By evening we would be in the Drake again, so we were all planning on staying out as long as possible. We were coming in when they forced us back and not before.

This photograph has now won three awards since my trip. More than any other previous single photograph of mine. I guess the polar regions agree with me.

The Errara Channel is a wide sheltered area with plenty of large and older icebergs. It’s also lined by glaciers and rocks, which makes for a surreal and almost alien scenery. The challenge of shooting here (and editing your work) is there are so many unusual and different elements that composition is challenging and complex. It’s one of the few landscapes that I have had to shoot like a photojournalist, with a long lens on one camera and a wide angle on the other. It may not make sense, as the landscape is not moving like a photo event, but it takes too long to change lens. I have often found myself composing both a long shot and a wide angle shot at the same time, which is a unique experience.

I do find myself sometimes changing between long lenses, as I move between my 300mm, 300mm with a doubler, and my 70-700. On the wide-angle side, I’ll change between 14mm, 16-45, and my 24-70. Even with two camera bodies, I am finding myself changing lens. It’s a complex dance of equipment, as there are nine other photographers in the little zodiac doing the same thing, but we are well practiced after five days of shooting here. We carefully move out of each other’s shots without thinking about it. There is also not a lot of talking in the zodiacs, as we are focused on pictures.

David duChemin in the Zodiac with me on the last day. Great photographer and a nice guy.

Eric Meola was also in my zodiac for the last day. Another great photographer and a very nice guy.

This is some of the most intense shooting I have ever done – and I absolutely love it. I understand now when people say the Polar Regions get into your blood, as I love the alien landscape.

We shoot in the zodiacs for three hours, which about the limit of the fuel (not to mention the passengers). It seems that every zodiac was following the same pattern, as we actually have a traffic jam at the ship, as seven boats come in to unload passengers.

Rush hour in Antarctica. There are four more zodiacs behind us .

After lunch, we load photos and prepare to shoot from the deck until we enter the Drake. We also put out patches on to deal with the adventure of the Drake.

As we start the head out to open sea, we have a chance to shoot from the deck. We also take the time to shoot portraits of each other.  Basically we hand our camera to someone nearby and they shoot us, then we return the favour.  This was my first opportunity to shoot with a medium format camera and I have begun to understand the attraction. Although the cameras are larger than a DSLR, I found them to be very comfortable. I fear for my bank account with this development.

The entrance to the Drake is not sudden, but as we get closer the waves start to become noticeable. After 5 days of rather smooth water, this is an unusual feeling.  As we shoot the waves hitting the shore, they soon start to get large enough to move the boat and continue to grow as we head out. By the time we break for dinner, we are fully in the Drake.

We are all ready for this experience, having gone through it once on the way over, but those who are susceptible to seasickness are well into their preparations. The way over was a chance to learn what worked and what didn’t, as each person is unique.

We all head to our cabins to prepare for the Drake. This means putting away everything and locking the closets with everything secured from rolling around.

Taken by my roommate, Char Davis, as we heading into the Drake. A very nice guy, great photographer, and I couldn’t have asked for a better person to share a room with on this trip.