South Georgia

Travel South

When we go fishing, we always stick as a group. Life is safer this way when we enter the waters. We sometimes go really far to get our food, I remember going up to 1000 kilometres away from our breeding site to find these lantern fishes and squids. When we are coming back, we cross through a field of seals, some pretty agressive, some just stare at us. They sometimes show us that we should not bother them; so we stay away, we avoid them and walk all the way back to our colony where our youngs are waiting for us in a creche, within the crowd of 60 000 of us.

Leucistic Musk

I am standing alone exposed to the element with my white coat. The lack of pigment on my young fur separates me from the others. We are only one out of a thousand to be born this way, but we are as fragile as the others, and only 20 percent of us will make it to adulthood. I am only a few weeks old, and life is hard here. The big males are fighting for females and they don't pay attention to such small creature like me. Mummy is out fishing because she lost a lot of weight when taking care of me and feeding me with her highly rich in fat milk. But I can not do it alone, and I hope she comes back because I will need her until I am big enough to go and look for food by myself.

Golden Harem

The beach master fur seal will gather a good amount of females that he protects; his Harem. These huge males are filled with anger, testosterone, and protective behaviour toward their ares, and their females. They interestingly mate about 8 days after the female gives birth. This is to make sure that the delayed development of the embryo (about 3 months) can be made in time and be followed by the gestation period of 9 months. This way, the fur seal insure a cycle of 12 months and can make sure their pups are born early summer and be ready to feed on their own before the arrival of the winter storms and the harsh conditions of the subantarctic.

Stronger Together

Places like South Georgia make you understand the meaning of life. So many fight for their survival, for the survival of their youngs in some of the harshest environment on the planet. We have witnessed some pretty intense behaviour from seals toward penguins, from meat eaters fearless birds towards seal pups and more. Some lives were taken away, but it also mean food is collected to feed the young. The death of one feed the young of the other. Like a huge crowd of people in a megalopolis, each of us is focused on our single lives, but out here, we live off the basics. We feed and we assure a future for the next generations without caring about our religion, or our skin colour. We live to survive, and we become stronger together.

Part Of Us

Do they even care we are here? Such a great question. When we are next to them, it all makes sense. This is one of the only place on the planet where animals are not scared of human, and we are not scared of animal. Many years went through since last hunting periods that wildlife here acts curious, approaching you, wandering what you are.

The Sense

We see the biggest concentration of marine mammals and sea birds on the planet. We feel the wind transporting the moulting feathers of the birds. We smell the intense sweet musk parfume of the fur seals and the pungent fishy scent of the penguin guano. We hear the constant wining of the juvenile birds and the adults calling for their chicks. Our senses are taken to another level here, not comparable to any other experience.

 This is the King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) colony of Salisbury Plain. The conditions in this image brings a unique mood which helps comprehend the magnitude, the depth and the wilderness we share our blue planet with. On this exact moment, the light penetrated through the low fog and the warm bodies condensation lingering above the rockery.

 I captured this image by creating a horizontal panorama of two images taken with the Sony A7RII mounted with the Tamron 28-200mm.
Each image is shot on 109mm, F5.6, quite a narrow depth of field we would think, but by doing so, it brings depth into the landscape and enhance the dimension into this crowd. It helps the viewer’s eye to rest on the front row of adult penguins very detailed and sharp with a shutter speed of 1/6400 which freezes animal’s movement during the panorama creation.
Moreover, these two shots had to be taken fast to manage good stitching of the panorama and consistent fixed position of the birds in between each image.

Le Royaume

In Fortuna bay, the king penguin colony is scattered along the 2km of pebble stoned beach and the delta created by the glacial rivers. The dimension of this place is on another level when the weather allows us to see the Neumayer mountain peaks in the background.

Standing Ovation

The biggest sea birds and marine mammals concentration on the planet. I am facing it right here, when clicking on the shutter of my camera. It is loud, wet, foggy, and the smell in the air is really unique to this place. The space is filled and dense out here. It is impressive to just spend time staring at one bird and try analysing what he is doing, minding his own little life within this immense crowd. The space is filled and dense out here. It is impressive to just spend time staring at one bird and try analysing what he is doing, minding his own little life within this immense crowd. It reminded me a lot of us, humans, and the way they are living our own life. We walk head facing down, with earphones on, walking through the crowd of a giant megalopolis.

Heartbreaker

This morning, we landed on a crowded beach. Males were so agressive that we could not stay on position. It was the first time I felt like they could be dangerous around me. We left the first landing site to relocate and try further. We managed to find an area which allowed us to walk with a little more space. We witnessed this day some heartbreaking moments, inspirational behaviours, and life on a thin line times. Big males use no gentle movements and are sometimes seen fighting against other males and crushing pups to death. It is the harsh low of nature here. Seals and penguins are together in the same environment and seam to live in harmony. It is only after observing them some time, and how they act around each other that we can notice how penguins are aware of seal's superiority. Sometimes the worst would happen, and the situation ends up into a tragic fatal moment.

Giant Harbour

Elephant seals are the largest species of seal on the planet. This species of true seal is absolutely massive, reaching sometimes up to four tones for the males. They will also have a harem, in which the beach master will gather all his females and become really protective. These huge males will always keep an eye open, watch for the other males trying to steal their females. When they show their power, they will fight. They stand up high, and throw their mass into each other. the impact resonate against the mountain and glacer side, and their growling vibrates through the ground. When rumbling, they have the power to send deep loud bass low frequencies which can be felt all the way into our feet. Not only they scare opponent males, but also us, little humans. The damages are colossal

Stromness Pass

During my travels, I have always distinguished a place according to its smell. When we arrived in South Georgia, we did our first landing, and I could smell the musk of fur seals from really far away. We drove our zodiac from our main vessel, and while advancing toward the crowded beach, we slowed down, looked from a side to another of the bay. We were trying to analyse where we could even have a chance to set foot on this land. November is begining of mating season so the release of pheromones is on its peak. It has its unique smell, sweet, rich and intense, something we don't forget and which is really recognisable when we arrive.

Approaching Sky

They see a zodiac landing on the pebble beach and wonder: What are these? They see that you are here, on the same place, but you look different. They look at you, then come closer to smell you, analyse what you are, but one thing is sure. You are not a threat for them. A few moments later, they loose interest. You become one of them. You are part of the dramatic landscape, without judgement of the colour of your jacket... If only humans could all be inspired by this behavior.

Salisbury Plain

This unique location is known as the breeding site for about 100,000 King penguins. Because of the very long breeding cycle, colonies are continuously occupied year-round with both adult birds and chicks. This beach sides are also covered with many southern elephant seals and Antarctic fur seals.

Face À Face

We don't see them at first. This image comes to sense when we pay more attention to it and realise about the two fur seals facing each other on the rock. It is with a new perspective, a new flavour to life that I leave South Georgia, now thinking, that it will be the best place any human could visit on our beautiful planet. Until the moment I face it again.