Video Photography in Antarctica

[joybook]

There seems to be plenty of websites that will give you all sorts of tips on taking photos in the Antarctic but next to nothing that I can find in relation to video photography. Can anyone help either from their own personal experience or knowledge of websites etc. We are not doing an expedition cruise, we are doing South America which includes 4 days cruising in the Antarctic. Many thanks.

[kaisatsu]

If you're not an expedition cruise, then you'll be limited to filming landscapes, and possibly icebergs. Look for information on filming snowy locations, glaciers, etc. or general information on time-lapse filming to capture the movement of the ship. Most people switch to video for the wildlife (since the scenery can be captured pretty well with still photography), so I don't know that you'd find much relevant video information from Antarctic-specific sources.

[joybook]

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Yes. I understand what you are saying but a video recording of the experience always adds to the photos (which my wife has the responsibility for). Still photos don't tell everything. I have videos of all our cruises and holidays generally and we watch them more times than look at the photos.

[PerfectlyPerth]

Darn - I posted a response from my phone last night but it refreshed and disappeared!

 

For me - my videos get viewed by myself far more often that my photos. I love to be able to hear the gale force winds, to see the waves crashing over the bow, to hear the chatter of the penguin colony, to see the whale surfacing beside my zodiac etc. While I love my photos - its my videos that take me right back to that spot.

 

I don't have any specific tips as personally I find it impossible to take a bad photo or video in that environment. But I do have to repeatedly tell myself to pan across horizons slower - sometimes I do it so fast that its dizzying to watch later. And I gave up trying to narrate as I went - I just stay silent. The wind usually blocks out half of what is being said anyway. And practice holding the camera/video steady on full zoom while on a moving vessel (tho you are on a full size cruise ship so there wont be the kind of movement we have on expedition ships etc). 

[AryMay]

We just did the HAL South America/Antarctica cruise in February and I took a lot of video. By using video (instead of just still photos) I was able to capture so much wildlife in action...whales breaching, penguins porpoising, etc. Once I got home I could go through the video footage and then save a frame if I wanted a still photo. I talked to other photographers on the ship who were only doing still photos and never did get some of the shots that I did. 

 

My main piece of advice is to take warm clothing and spend a lot of time out on deck. My husband was able to get some awesome video (on his iPhone no less!) of a whale breaching right next to the ship when almost no one else was around just because he spent so much time outside. And another tip...some "Hot Hands" hand warmers inside your gloves will make all the difference in the world for comfort. With the hand warmers, I could wear thinner gloves and still operate the controls on my camera.

 

Lastly...since you will not be stepping foot on land, having a good zoom will be important. We passed by large colonies of penguins that were just tiny specks to the naked eye. With a zoom (mine was 50x) you could see them in action.

 

A link to my blog is in my signature and has more details, photos and links to a couple of videos I put on YouTube.

[joybook]

Thanks for your comments and advice.