Photograph of the Month March 2024 – Riding the Iceberg in Antarctica

The photograph of the month for March 2024 comes from my recent December 2023 expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula (Read the Trip Report) and is of Adelie penguins riding an Iceberg. Photographed on our very last full day in Antarctica, this image was made by holding the camera with a wide angle 14-35mm lens over the side of the zodiac, just a few centimetres above the water line. The key to making this approach work is the focal point and the choice of f-stop to ensure sufficient depth of field. You really need to focus one-third into the frame and ensure you have stopped down enough to have the image sharp front to back. In this situation, I manually selected the focus point I wanted to ensure the depth of field was correct. The Auto focus would otherwise lock the penguins or iceberg, leaving the foreground too soft for my tastes.