Deception Island

High winds and horizontal snow kept most from making the first landing and cancelled the second at Deception Island, an active volcano you can sail into that was once used for processing in the whaling industry and is now only used for tourism and science,...

Orne Harbor, Errera Channel, Danko Island, Neumayer Channel, Port Lockroy

5 am and Michael Reichmann comes on the PA, “There’s gorgeous light -again.” We’ve all had 2 hours sleep. 4 the night before. Who knows how many the two nights before that. We’re running on adrenaline – so we do it. Seth Resnick shows up...

Useful Island & Neko Harbor

Zodiac’s in big swell first thing in the morning. Seth Resnick and I are bouncing all over the place. We’re shooting fast and praying, laughing all the way. I keep coming back around one set of icebergs. After three times, others want to move on....

Fish Island, Grandidier Channel, Petermann Island, La Mer Channel

Pre-breakfast cruise at Fish Island through thick brash ice to two fantastic iceberg arches topped off with a close encounter with a leopard seal that slapped our zodiac with its flipper and followed us all the way back to the boat. You’ve got to shoot...

Crystal Bay & The Gullet

This is quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been. While the captain of the ship had been here before, none of our guides had – our expedition leader Brandon has been on 80 voyages. Very few people get to see this part...

Stonnington Island

Sunshine! After days and days of gray with next to no visibility and rain, the sky broke open. Cold katabatic winds churned the seas. We visited the abandoned base of Stonnington Island, gazed on the glacier behind it, and cruised the iceberg strewn harbor in...

La Mer Channel

Bearing the weather in mind we headed south fast last night and got to the La Mer Channel late in the morning. On the past two trips we took several days making multiple stops along the way. But this time the weather is so poor...

South Shetland Islands

Take the walk. Barrientos Island has two major points, a penguin nesting ground and a long strand with two dramatic columnar basalt outcrops. In 2005, we never took the longer walk to this surreal landscape. So a familiar place offered a dramatic surprise. It was...

Crossing the Circumpolar Current

More Drake. Smoother and smoother sailing. This is the easiest crossing I’ve had so far. And it’s the hardest to make images during; not much is happening visually (no white caps and spray, no glittery surface, no storm fronts or crepuscular rays). Last night we...

Crossing the Drake

It takes almost two days to cross the Drake Passage (the roughest waters in the world)(we’ve been blessed with an easy crossing) to get to Antarctica. What do you do while you’re waiting to arrive? Sleep. Read. And listen to onboard lectures. Watch the ocean....