Pictures from Antarctica, Falklands & South Georgia

[Chris_GA_Atl]

Hey everyone,

 

I finally finished processing the pictures from our recent trip to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, and posted them at www.pbase.com/cwillis/antarctica. When looking at them, it's best to view them at "original" size, so beneath any picture, just click the "original" link and after that, they will all appear that size. The pictures were taken on a January 2009 trip on the Lyubov Orlova. Hope you enjoy them!

 

Chris

[pacmom]

Great pictures. Can't wait til next January for our Antartic trip!! Pat

[Nonna and Papa]

Nice pictures. Thank you for posting them. We're looking towards our own trip next February on the Infinity.

 

Mary

[thoms42]

Hi all,

 

Can't resist offering some of the photos my Grandson & I took during our Antarctic Circle cruise on the MV Fram January 23 - February 4, 2009

http://www.sonic.net/thom/antarctica. This was one awesome trip from beginning to end.

[pinguino]

your photos are amazing! especially the ones of the chicks being fed, and the one jumping.

 

im going there in november with a bunch of photographers. had some questions-

was it hard to shoot with it being really cold (did you have special gloves to control your camera)?

did you have a waterproof case on it for the zodiac stuff?

[Chris_GA_Atl]

Pinguino,

Thanks for the comment. For gloves, I used a thin pair of liner gloves with some fingerless wool gloves on top of the liners. This was as much as I could do, but my hands still got cold, because the landings would last more than 3 hours. So I used handwarmers in my pockets to warm up my hands every once in a while. But using thicker gloves isn't an option, because it will interfere with handling the camera and lens controls.

I did use a Waterproof bag (LowePro DryZone 200) for the zodiac rides most of the time, but keep in mind the risk of water exposure does not end when you get off the zodiac -- we had sudden and unexpected (albeit light) rain on several landings, which meant I needed to protect the camera then too. On occasion, I got tired of carrying the DryZone on the Zodiac, so I just put the camera under my waterproof jacket, and did the same thing when it rained on the landings, and that worked perfectly fine. I did not use a rain hood or anything like that, figuring that if it was raining, I didn't really want to be shooting anyway. We did shoot in light rain for short periods of time and didn't suffer any ill effects from doing so, but you definitely don't want to push your luck on that!

Have a great time in November! I am sure you will love Antarctica, it has something to offer every form of photographer.

 

Chris

[einsteinsmom]

Thanks for posting the pics!

kristy

[pinguino]

oh awesome, ill pass those tips along to the photographers in our group. do you remember who made your gloves? about half of us live in california so we have no idea how to dress for cold weather when it drops anywhere below 70

 

are the handwarmers those like packet things you crack and they get warm, for when you go camping and stuff?

[pinguino]

oh and on the zodiac were you shooting through the bag, or did you have a lens sticking out the end of it? or just took it in and out of the bag as needed?

[Chris_GA_Atl]

(1) The gloves came from REI, you can order them online or get them in any REI store.

(2) The handwarmers are the little packets that heat up when exposed to air -- you can get them online from Little Hotties or in many outdoor / sporting goods stores.

(3) The bag I am talking about is a waterproof camera backpack -- it is for storage and transportation only and you cannot shoot with the camera in the bag. On zodiac rides where we knew we would be taking pictures, we put the cameras inside our jackets or just held them where they would be shielded from spray -- but usually those were rides in calm water. For spontaneous shots from the zodiac just going to and from the ship, we had a small point & shoot in a pocket that we would take out as needed.

Have a great time on your trip!

Chris

 

P.S. If you want to see an extensive discussion about photography issues on one of these trips, take a look at my trip report, posted at http://www.fodors.com/community/cruises/antarctica-the-falkland-islands-and-south-georgia-trip-report-and-pictures.cfm

I go on at some length about photography equipment, conditions, and things like that. I didn't post the trip report here because it is against the forum rules, but you might find it helpful in planning for your trip.