adventures in *

crossing the drake passage from alvinc on Vimeo.

shot with a 5dm2, 16mm zenitar fisheye, 1 and 2 s interval
music by the bridal shop “beyond our grasp”

nice framing

mother protecting her young

nesting

bbq in paradise from alvinc on Vimeo.

paradise bay. it was a beautiful day for a bbq. shot with a 5dm2 w/ 17-40f4l, 1s interval.

music by el ten eleven “every direction is north”
very fitting i must say

penguin attack from alvinc on Vimeo.

thanks to tomas for shooting this video. the gentoos seemed to be the most friendly type of penguin, they’ll come right up and peck at you or try to bite backpack straps. the adelie and chinstrips ignored us for the most part.

picture of the beer can at deception island, with the plants in the inset. it’s hard to tell from the image, but it has about 10 individual leaves per plant.

antarctica is a harsh environment, most of the flora growing there consists of lichens and moss, so finding a tracheophyte (higher plant) is always of scientific interest.

dwarfed by icebergs

leopard seal

sunset at paradise bay

so much happened during this trip, i had to keep a journal to remember it all. scroll down to 2/11 to see day one aboard the ship.

transit to neko harbor from alvinc on Vimeo.

shot with 5dm2 17-40f4l, 1 second intervals
combined in virtualdub and compressed with sony vegas

iceberg

penguins love flag poles

my home for 12 days

chinstrap penguin

ride is over

lemaire channel in the background

it seemed like a good idea at the time, the water was only 1 degree celsius
(photo from vladimir s.)

(photo from julian o.)

here’s some of my favorite pictures out of 25000.

fur seal at brown bluff

curious gentoo penguin

this chinstrap penguin is trying to fly

weddell seal at melchiors island

storm petrels, also known as the jesus bird, because it looks like they're walking on water

petrel dive bombing a gull

just so it’s easier for people to see my antarctica entry, i’ve set it to the default landing page. if you want to see pictures of other locations go here http://ch4n.com/gallery2

i wasn’t able to post while on the ship, but i’ll be updating throughout this week with pictures and details.

wake up call at 5:30a, no hangover, but i was really tired after only 3 hours of sleep. it was a bitter sweet day, seemed everyone was sad to leave. when i originally planned the trip, i only wanted to see the penguins and icebergs. not only did that happen, but i also met many interesting people and made new friends that i wouldn’t have anywhere else. it was also great to share the experience of antarctica with all of them.

the ages of the passengers varied from 16 to 65+, but most were in their early 30s. i didn’t expect there to be so many people around my age. some of them had quit their jobs to travel the world. it was inspiring, but i prefer a steady paycheck, for now atleast.

as we disembarked the ship, many of us parted ways and headed into town. it was early, 8am, the city was still asleep. it was funny running into fellow passengers around the main street, san martin ave.

eventually many of us congregated at a coffee shop, tante sara, where we killed some time before heading off to the airport.

we said our goodbyes again at the airport, only to see each other again in buenos aires, then in atlanta. it was amusing.

vlad put together a slideshow of images taken by the passengers and crew during the trip. i managed to get 9 of my pictures in it, not bad, i must be doing something right.

we had baked antarctica for our final desert.

later that evening, i was in my cabin packing and heard a bunch of cheering coming from the hallway. i went to check i t out, the polish group had bought a few bottles of vodka and were pouring drinks for everyone walking past them in the bar.

one of the guys spoke hardly a word of english but kept pointing at me and repeating “dvd dvd”, i think he really liked the pictures i had on the slideshow dvd.

he gave me his address and said to visit him if i’m ever in poland.

there were probably around 30 people in the bar and we started singing karaoke off someone’s laptop. i still have that ymca song stuck in my head.

woke up with the ship rolling, but not as bad as the previous night. breakfast was served at 8, there were only 5 other people there when i arrived, usually there’d be a line already. more passengers came in later but it wasnt at full capacity.

i spent the rest of the day going through photos and trying to get the time lapse videos working. my laptop couldn’t cope with the 7000+ image sequences.

our final day in the penninsula, i woke up at 6. today we went hiking on danco island, it was a steep huff up to the peak but it gave us a 360 degree view of the area. on the way down, many people including myself slid down the hill on our butts, it was like being a kid again. in the afternoon, we did a zodiac cruise around the melchiors islands.

during dinner, we started heading into the drake passage. dishes were crashing in the kitchen and diners tried to keep glasses on the table. in the cabin, dave had opened up the closet, then the ship pitched hard, he pulled the closet door off the hinge. he had the funniest expression on his face. i later made the mistake of standing up during a hard roll, i ended up headbutting the lamp and wall.

it took awhile for me to fall asleep, feeling the ship go up on a wave and come down twisting was very intense. it felt like an amusement park ride.

the wind had picked up in the early morning, the rolling and pitching of the ship woke me up early. i went up to the bridge to check things out, white caps were blowing over the water and things were very gloomy. jill came up and gave the morning wakeup call on the intercom system. we were to go through the lemaire channel at 6am. it’s also known as kodak gap or fuji funnel because it’s so photogenic.

after passing through the channel, our planned landing was scrapped due to weather conditions. jill decided to go to plenaeu bay for a zodiac cruise. the colors of the bergs were so brilliant, so many shades blue. carved by water, wind, and icemelt, the icebergs looked like sculptures. the zodiac drivers cruised to a few of the arch icebergs so we could take the cliche photo of a zodiac on the other side. cliche but still a great photo op.

we had a surprise russian show, yarmarka, during the evening recap, the russian staff dressed in traditional clothing to sing and dance for us. for dinner, we were greeted with shots of vodka and russian food like borscht.

woke up at 5:30, looked outside the porthole and saw many snow covered mountains. after gearing up, i went on deck and took a 2 hour time lapse of our transit to neko harbor. the weather cleared up and the sun was shining brightly. we had breakfast, then landed on neko harbor. there’s an old argentine research building there, but the main attraction was a short hike to a rock outcrop overlooking the harbor. just next to the beach was a huge glacier that was calving into the water. after hiking to the top, we saw a couple small snow falls. going back down to shore was interesting, the boots we were given don’t have much traction and the hill is fairly steep in some sections. i managed to slide down while standing for part of the way. nearly fell a few times, but i would end up hunched over barely balancing with my arms.

the harbor also had lots of gentoo penguins, young curious ones. one penguin walked up to joey, circled around and looked like he was about to poop in her direction, but just before he went, he turned around and pooped away from her. she was lucky. later another penguin hopped onto joey’s lap.

our next zodiac trip, we were supposed to split groups, one going on a zodiac tour around the ice, the other going to almirante brown research station, they changed last notice and we all got to do the cruise. it was so amazing to cruise around the icebergs, finally saw a couple leopard seals sleeping on small bergs. there was also a dark pink jellyfish and cormorants. we went near a calving glacier, vladimir, the zodiac driver asked us to be quiet for one minute, we could hear the crackling, dripping, and thundering of the glacier as it moved and calved. there was a huge thunder with the sound resonating across the water.

the highlight of the cruise was when the hotel staff came by waving a big blue quark flag in their zodiac, then offered hot chocolate with rum for our cruise back to the ship.

yesterday jill, the expedition leader, mentioned during the evening recap that dinner tonight will be a bbq on the deck, i can’t wait. the weather is perfect, mid 40′s with clear blue skies, surrounded by snow capped mountains and icebergs in the water.

the bbq was fantastic, tons of food, prime rib, lamb, chicken, sausages, mulled wine and beer. to top it all off, i’ve probably seen the best sunset of my life, the ship was headed towards the sun with mountains surrounding us. there were some lenticular clouds forming in the distant mountains and low clouds hanging onto the glacier covered peaks. the skies were a brilliant pastel of pink and purple all around us.

my alarm woke me up at 5am, drinking 2 bottles of wine wasn’t the best idea. it was dark and gloomy outside so i slept until 7ish.

they announced the next zodiac trip for 8am, i went up to get breakfast and then geared up. we went to half moon island and it was populated with mostly chinstraps with a few gentoos here and there. on some of the beaches, fur seals were lying around.

the expedition staff were radioing each other, then went up to a hill. a bunch of us followed them up and discovered a tapeworm coming out of a penguin’s behind. there were a few more worms on the ground. one the the staff picked it up with a rock and examined it closer. apparently the worms aren’t very common in penguins. a sheathbill bird came along and ate a couple of the worms to everyone’s disgust.

our next zodiac trip was deception island, a ring shaped volcano with an narrow opening called neptune’s bellows for us to sail into. inside were old whaling stations, most of them were intact. there was also a aircraft hangar at the far end of the landing area.

the island is geothermically active so we had the opportunity to do the polar plunge. the water was 1c, air temp not too much higher. there was a group of around 8 people who went in at the same time, i ran in and laid down in the water, managed to take a gulp of cold salty antarctic water. as soon as i got in, i wondered
to myself, what the hell was i thinking. the anticipation of going in was worse than actually doing it. i got out, dried off and put on a shirt. then went back to my camera, some of the girls were laying on the shoreline keeping warm in the sand – everyone got a good laugh and photos from it.

after we got back to the ship, i was reviewing the images i took at the islands and noticed some green plants in the photo i took of a beer can. it was inside a fallen oil barrel. it reminded me of the rare plant that michael, one of the expedition staff, gave a lecture about.

during dinner, i showed him the picture, he seemed very excited, we couldn’t go back to the island so he has to wait 10 days for his next tour. it would be awesome if i made a major scientific find. i didn’t think much of the plant when i was photographing, i was focused on that old beer can. i gave the images to michael later that evening.

turned in early tonight, around 10.

woke up at 4am, looked out the porthole and it was still pretty dark. i closed my eyes for a minute and woke up 40 minutes later to the sound of growler icebergs hitting the ship. it was light enough so i went to the library to get some tea then geared up. the sun was starting to rise over the horizon as i got on deck, the light was bright orange and pink, lighting up the very top peaks of the mountains ahead of us.

as i was walking from the stern to bow, i picked up my tripod to put over my shoulder, but then my 5dm2 with 100-400 slipped out of the bracket and bounced on the deck. the lens hood and corner of the camera hit the deck. everything still works ok, although when looking through the viewfinder with the 100-400 attached, there’s concentric rings, but it doesnt seem to show up in the images. scary moment, but glad i got that first drop over with.

we were supposed to see paulette island but the weddel sea was too iced up for us to pass in enough time, there was also quite a bit of wind. we went to brown bluff instead, it was our first landing on the continent. saw gentoo and adelie pengiunos. also fur seals and there were crab eatter seals in the water, but i didnt get a good look at them.

had lunch, went on the deck for a bit.

the next zodiac landing was announced, we’re going to gourdin island, where we would see chinstrap penguins. it was very windy and we had to go about 1.75 mi to get to shore. it was a bouncy ride and i was worried about falling off the zodiac because i was wearing my 30lb camera bag. managed to get to shore safely. hiked up maybe 500 ft to the peak of the island, had a panoramic view of the entire area. i saw the chinstraps finally, cute little guys. and also saw two young adelies chase around a slightly older one.

left the island at 5:20p, took a short cruise where we saw more brushtail penguins, 2 weddel seals, a small receding iceberg with horizontal and almost radial columnar basalt formations. to top it off, there was a tabular iceberg the shape of a heart, in the center are two ice caves, carved by the sea. it was a very bright blue, with the sunlight shining into it.

near the ship, we spotted 2 whales, which later we were told were humpbacks. they spouted off a couple times, then when we got back on the ship, they announced it on the intercom system. i went up to the top deck and got a few shots of the blows and fins.

at dinner, we sat with liran, tomas, joey and a british lady who i later found out is yvonne. it was valentines day, so they had one of the russian crew members, vladimir, dress as cupid during dinner. afterwards we all went back to our cabin, drank and told stories for a couple hours.

it was only day one of antarctica landings and it felt very long and tiring. i shot many videos and images, i’m not sure if i’ll have enough disk space for 4 more days of landings.