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....

All Aboard

Today was all logistics. Get last minute items. Pack and load bags. Find my cabin. Get luggage stored and tied in for a bounce across the Drake Passage. Introduction to and orientation with the Quark staff. Safety issues. Now it’s two days of bounce before...

Ushuaia – Alvear Glacier

Ushuaia – Alvear Glacier Today we (my companions Seth Resnick, Craig Perrini, and Chris Hauser) took a hike. It was the hardest hike I’ve ever taken. It was described simply as a 3 hour 7 km hike one way. What was left out was that...

Ushuaia

We (Caponigro, Johnson, Resnick, Schewe) got the lay of the land today. We tapped local resources for information about the area, scoured maps and guide books, rented a car, and drove through the mountains to Lake Fagnano. The local landscape isn’t particularly distinctive. I had...

Olaf Willoughby – Alumni Success Story

Olaf Willoughby is one of my workshop alumns with an amazing success story. It’s a testament to how one man with focus can succeed personally and make a significant contribution in a short time. “It all started with the mesmerising impact of a photographic expedition...

Scanning Black & White Originals

Here’s a simple formula for scanning black and white originals (film or prints). Scan in Grayscale (there’s no benefit to scanning in RGB), in 16 bit, and at the native resolution of a scanner (upsample in Photoshop only if needed, not during scanning). Make sure...