The shot: Studio pose

I don’t know how or why, but I know that Adelie penguins were going to be my favourite of that species in Antarctica. Penguins themselves are remarkable birds. They were first thought to be fish…, but then quickly classified as birds once a few were cut open. Additionally, when we see them, in the ‘warmer’ months of the Antarctic summer, they are actually close to overheating. 

So well are they developed for withstanding extremely cold temperatures that when it gets to over 0 degrees Celsius, they have to regulate to stay cool! Other than that they are completely comical, ponderous on land, and inquisitive, which is exactly why I and so many other people enjoy being in their surrounds. Getting inside an Adeline colony is easy, isolating a bird is more difficult. 

Once I found one I looked further than a normal portrait and searched how I could abstract a portrait by using the lines and shapes that the blacks were making against the snow. When the Adelie started preening, these geometric forms came into play. I dropped onto my belly and composed this image, taking you away from the bird and playing with the lines and shapes to form a strong composition that incidentally has an Adelie in it!

Join Shem Compion, Denis Glennon and Art Wolfe on this once in a lifetime Photographic Tour to the Antarctic.