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| MS Stockholm |
We’ve
arrived in Longyearben on Svalbard. This island, which is about the size of
Ireland, and at latitude 78°N, is only 1338km from the North Pole! We are here
to photograph polar bears.
DAY 1: we
board the MS Stockholm
We board
our ship the MS Stockholm in late afternoon, and will sail south during the
evening and night. We are, as Shem said, a cosmopolitan group. 11 photographers
from 3 continents: Africa, Australia and Europe. This is somewhat like one of
the big brother soaps, 12 strangers in a confined space (our cabin is about
2x3m), without contact to the outer world, but we’ll be okay, we all have the
same goal: a great photo of a polar bear.
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| Our Cabin |
DAY 2: the first bear is Nr. 22
Just a
short sleep, at 05:15 there’s a bang on the door, polar bear sighting! Unfortunately
the researchers put collars on the female bears and each bear gets a number on
its bum, this one is Nr.22.
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| The 1st bear |
In the
afternoon we board the zodiacs and go ashore to stretch our legs and do a bit
of landscape photography. It is rather cloudy now, not the best light to photograph
but we try.
DAY 3: polar
bear with cubs
Oh shit,
it’s 04:00 and there’s a knock on our door, end of my beauty sleep! The mum and
cubs are coming in our direction. By the time we are all awake and geared up
for our zodiac tour, things have changed. A male has shown up, chased off the
mum and her cubs and is eating off their kill.
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| Male eating |
We watch
some great interaction, taking turns in standing and photographing from our
wobbly zodiac, hand held and moving, this is a challenge, but great fun!
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| 4 bears together |
After lunch
we go ashore again and do some land and -seascape photography, this time in
wonderful weather. This is an inspiring and beautiful place. From here we sail
south during dinner and most of the evening.
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| Seascape |
DAY 4: tiny cub on the run
We’ve seen
5 polar bears in 32 hours, and we’re only at the start of day 3! Their timing
is disastrous, this time the knock at the door is at 02:00. It takes two more
wake up calls at 04:00 and 05:00 till the beat with tiny cub is within
photographic range. A big male has appeared, they start running, pass us at
about 20m distance, and within 2min they are out of photo range again, and soon
after that out of sight.
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| Cub on the run |
In the
afternoon we cruise by glaciers, the one called Burgerbukta we will definitely
remember. The captain parks the ship quite far into the ice then turns the
motor off. Now this is a novelty. They put out the ladder and tell us to leave
ship. Not because anything is wrong, just for fun, so we can walk on the ice.
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| Ship in the ice |
From here
we move further south, do two more stops to photograph walrus on the pack ice
(which is the free floating ice, lots of it) and just as we head for bed at
23:00 the next call comes : polar bear with kill ahead. Honest, you don’t get
to sleep on this ship!
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| Bear with kill |
DAY 5: “un
bear able”
This is our
no bear day, unbearable! We sleep till 07:30, such a luxury! We do a zodiac
tour, first walrus, then to yet another glacier, photograph the Killiwakes in
front of it.
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| Walrus and calf |
After lunch
the next glacier, the Fridtjovbreen. We go quite a way into the ice till we get
stuck, 15min photo time the captain says. Shem shows us how to use the
graduated filter, it really does make a difference, suddenly the grey mess up
there shows some interesting contrasts.
DAY 6: walrus for breakfast
After
breakfast we take the zodiac to the shore and walk towards the walrus. In the
background the mainland with mountains and glaciers, in the foreground a messy
heap of snoring and farthing walrus. A call from the beach, there is one of
them approaching from the water, curious, as most animals here are, he swims up
to us, really close!
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| Photographers on the beach |
The
afternoon we cruise along the Dahlbreen glacier, at last we found a glacier
which hasn’t got a whole load of fast ice in front of it. The sun is shining,
the glacier lights up, we see every cliff, crack and dent in the ice, there are
little bits floating around in front of it, the sky in the background is a
bright dark blue, such a lovely contrast.
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| Glacier |
DAY 7: Bird day
We are
again anchored at an unbelievably beautiful, and very quiet and peaceful spot.
Today we will go ashore, hike up a hill to a bird cliff. There should be
reindeer and arctic foxes there. We only see birds.
This
afternoon we get a lecture by Shem, after that the next outing. He actually
explains lightroom to us, lots of useful tips and tricks. The next stop is at
another famous bird cliff, its structure, and that of the other mountains
around us is amazing. At the top there’s lots of birds flying around, fewer at
the bottom. We find a nest of black guillemots and watch a gull steal eggs from
it. There are puffins flying to and from the cliffs, the best and closest shots
are those of the puffins in the water.
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| Puffins |
DAY 8: all good things come to an end
Time to go
home, it was a great trip with spectacular sightings: 9 polar bears, walrus,
seals, reindeer and lots of birds and the amazing little puffins. An amazing
ship, with a friendly crew and an excellent cook, and good company all the way.
Thank you Shem and all my fellow photographers, we had an awesome arctic
experience!
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| The team |
For the whole story and more photos check out
our blog at: www.bluemelphoto.ch
Copyright
photo and text by Astrid Bluemel for bluemelphoto.ch
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