Antarctica

By My Side

The dark moody weather on the southern side offered a huge contrast with the low light coming from the sunset. The sun was casting these warm beams in between two clouds that would travel all the way against the icebergs lingering into the Gelarche. This evening, I dropped everything I was doing to go and spend some time to shoot from the top deck. I was looking for contrast of light and colour, and symmetry into the frame. Well found!

Layers Of Antarctica

When I look up, I see all these layers that Antarctica shows us. I am gathering on my rockeries with my mates. When time comes, I usually place little Peebles on a circular shape on the ground, so I can lay my eggs and keep them elevated and dry. 

 I will then cover them with my brood pouch, and take daily turn with my partner. I am a Gentoo, and this year, the snow coverage is particularly thick, so I am standing my ground patiently, until I feel ready for it.

Firama

My Rock

Today, the snow is drifting around me and the winds are pounding. I am patiently waiting for the snow to melt so I can access my little rocks underneath the white carpet. I can just hear the deep silence and the howling gusts.
It is peaceful, quiet, and I know I will stay undisturbed here during the twenty four hours day time of Antarctic summer.

Young Adelie

This is an image I dreamt of capturing. Since I started my first voyage down to Antarctica, this was on my bucket list of images I want to reach. I did not want to push this moment, and believe it or not, on the last zodiac cruise I did on Expertise Island, I finally snap this shot after two months of waiting for the right moment, the right ice texture, and the right position for the penguin. This young Adelie penguin was resting on this grounded Iceberg, maybe trying to avoid an attack from a leopard seal roaming the transparent waters.

Guardians Of Ice

I found my place for the summer. I am facing this incredible landscape, a graveyard of iceberg. Each of these piece of ice is grounded due to shallow reef, and I can feel that are watching us lay our eggs and taking care of our young during the warmest months.

 These massive block of ice will eventually die here, or melt until they become free and pushed out of the bay, pursuing their travel along with the currants of the Gelarche straight.

Dissipate

It is always so impressive to reach a location in Antarctica and being uncertain about the visibility and the fog. 
 I had one main rule on these moments. Always take your camera with you.
We land into a white landscape and snow depth as high as us. By using shovels and energy, we manage to make our way on land and observe the landscape opening. Once the fog dissipates, I discover an unbelievable combination of wildlife and light like we see nowhere else on the planet.

Quiet

This night, we are traveling in peace and quiet into the Gelarche straight. I could spend hours looking for some blows at the horizons, searching for the orcas, the same way as I would do it searching for the polar bears in the Arctic.

Dimension Of Antarctica

Do you feel the magnitude?
 A thick layer of ice covers the mountain tops and offer a landscape unique to Antarctica.

 Pedro Grimaldi was here in search of foregrounds and wildlife behaviour to build up an amazing film about our Antarctica voyage. By walking from a penguin rockery to another, he is hiking through this ridge with that immense backdrop that help us understand the dimension of Antarctica.

To The Clan

When penguins decide it is time to go feeding, they often gather as a group by the water side and stay as a group before all diving into the cold waters. It is such an interesting behaviour to see that help them keeping less exposed to predators such Leopard seals or Orcas. Even-though Gentoos are the fastest of the brush tailed penguins, their 37km/h top speed does not help against a giant female hungry Leopard seal.

Neumayer ’s Channel

A channel that gets no wider than 1.8km hosts some of the best landscape to be seen on the western peninsula. Crowned by the Mount Francais, culminating at 2761m, this narrow corridor is home to many humpback whales coming for the summer season with their calves to feed on the rich waters of the south. They can be seen along the glacial walls, logging in between the giant wedge icebergs.

The whale's touch

Today we kayak along the shores of Orne Harbour. The wind is absent, and we can only hear the drops licking along our paddles and landing into the water. A few minutes into our adventure, and we can see a blow from a humpback whale and her fluke going down, toward us. The humpback whale came next to us and dove under us. For a few second, we were watching around, waiting for her to pop out somewhere. The only thing we could see, is the water surface patterns gently changing under us and next to our kayaks, as if the whale was underneath us, watching us, studying us; as if the whale was using her body and her pectoral fins to move the water gently under our kayaks trying to feel how fragile we are. We could feel her presence. We felt a mix of fear and amazingness on the moment which translated into an incredible encounter with a gentle and smooth touch. After a few seconds, the water became a mirror again, and the whale re-appeared 100 meters away, traveling away from us. This was an experience I will never forget.

Purple Blues

Grimaldi's Touch

Changing Winds

Being so far south helps you understand the similarities with the environmental condition we sometimes find also in the far North.
T his day, winds were coming from the North, which means from the open ocean. This could only mean bring precipitations and warmer air temperatures, usually resulting into low clouds fogs and high winds.
The scenery will dramatically change within just a few minutes.

Encounter

Power Of the night

Primavera

The Weddel

The Life Map

My Inspiration to travel, to go forward and not look back is well translated. I always have a goal, and I walk toward it. It could be in term of photography, or professionally, but also in term of feelings. 

 When I am here on this white land, I watch Davide Giannetti walking forward, tripod on his back, advancing toward this white peak covered of ice. I can smell the cold air, feel the freezing wind, hear his foot step cracking the snow carpet and I know that is what I love in life.

 Polar regions are an inspiration to beauty and discovery, to pushing limits and boundaries, to sharing a moment with incredible humans, but also with yourself. You realise where you are in life and on the map.

Early Summer

Reaching Antarctica West Peninsula during early summer shows white immaculate landscapes. Gentoo penguins just arrive to their rockeries, and will wait for the snow to melt in order to start incubating.

The weather can be harsh at this time of the year, and temperature are still around -5c when operating.

Good Bye Antarctica