Antarctica 2016: Crossing the Southern Circle

The first time I stepped onto land in Antarctica I was asked, “is this your seventh continent”? to which I belatedly replied, Yes! I had not considered it before because I was in awe of my surrounds and very excited for the upcoming landing. Antarctica does that to you- the obvious becomes an after thought because you are so caught up in the moment of enjoying this wonderland.

Svalbard is on the edge of the world, well I say Antarctica is just ‘another world’, and each landing was one that allowed you to enjoy and appreciate the grandeur of the surrounds. Glaciers wider than our vessel prop up white mountains, with tops reaching for the sky. The scale is immense and if you don’t measure it by a man made object you are at risk of underscoring the landscape. The issue for the photographer is lens choice. Due to the vast variety of landscapes I was always changing from wide, to medium and then long lenses so as to try and capture every detail of those white mountains. 

Abstract forms come to life with the long lens while foreground interest shows itself in almost every wide landscape scene. It’s a veritable paradise for the landscape photographer and these are the thoughts as I am touching my seventh continent. I am yet to think about photographing the massive penguin colony in front of me. That though, is for another post.

I’ll be returning to Antarctica this January 2016. To join myself, Art Wolfe and Dennis Glennon on this photo workshop have a look at our webpage here: