The new December / February issue of Photo Review ‘Inspiring Australian Photographers’, will soon go on sale and includes a feature article ‘Ice Work‘ on my polar photography as well as one of my recent photographs from Antarctica on the cover. The cover shot was taken last November during a photographic expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula and is of a Gentoo Penguin calling its mate during a heavy snow fall. I cannot recall the exact location I took this image as we visited so many different islands, coves and bays during our two weeks visiting and photographing in Antarctica. It was shot with a Canon EOS 1DX and the new Canon 200-400mm F4L IS lens with inbuilt 1.4 Teleconverter. I was able to create a more intimate and evocative photograph by lying down in the snow in order to be at eye level with the subject. The heavy snowfall was a bonus and this really adds to the atmosphere and interest of the photograph for me. Scoring the cover of a magazine is always a huge thrill. Magazines rarely advise you prior to publication that you have made the cover so it is always a wonderful surprise to see the issue for the first time. You can click on the image below to download the full article or HERE to download as a PDF. Photo Review is available in both print as well as digital editions for the iPad or PDF for other electronic readers.
It is less than ten days now until I head back to Antarctica for two back-to-back expeditions to South Georgia Island and Antarctica. The excitement of heading to one of the world’s most remote and magnificent destinations for photography is as strong for me now as it was with my very first visit and I am really excited to share these expeditions and the majesty of Antarctica with all aboard. I still have many loose ends to tie up before I board that first plane for the long haul to South America in a weeks time – not the least of which is the traditional packing list blog post. I hope to have this finalised in the next few days.
Category: Arctic
Jewels of the Arctic 2014 Expedition Report
In late August 2014 I led a ship based polar photography expedition from Isafjord in the north of Iceland to the remote east coast of Greenland and west coast of Svalbard – The Jewels of the Arctic. During this expedition we sailed across the Denmark Strait from Iceland and explored and photographed the wild and remote fjords of Greenland and stunning glacial landscapes of Svalbard. We saw and photographed giant icebergs, precipitous mountains that plunge hundreds of metres into the sea, majestic wildlife and much more. We encountered Arctic pack ice and spent many hours photographing from ship, shore and zodiac under the midnight Arctic sun. 
This trip report is going to be a little different to those I have written up in the past. Rather than recount just the highlights and main experiences I am instead going to post the day-by-day reports that are handed out to participants at the end of each day. At the conclusion of every day of the expedition the staff and crew compile a report of our activities for the day as well as our upcoming plans for the following day. The intention of these daily reports is not only to keep everyone on the expedition up to date but also to provide a record at the end of trip for participants to take home. These reports give a wonderful insight into ship board life and the many experiences over the course of the expedition. They cover a lot more than just the photography (in fact they are not really meant to be photography based, and are focused on life aboard ship and in the Arctic) and include information about the ships position, weather, wildlife encounters, our daily itinerary and even a few Russian language tips in good faith to our crew. The Trip Daily Reports can be downloaded as a complete PDF file HERE.
As with all polar expeditions we encountered a variety of weather that included a remarkably calm and flat Denmark Strait and Greenland sea crossing. Both of these stretches of water are quite notorious and can be as rough as the Drake Passage (that thin stretch of water between South America and Antarctica). Thankfully we were fortunate to experience calm seas for the duration of our expedition, which really maximised our photography – both on ship and on zodiac. I lost count of the number of zodiac excursions during the fourteen days we were in the Arctic but they included many, many hours cruising amongst gigantic icebergs and dramatic mountain scenery.
I am still sorting through and editing the many thousands of photographs I made during this expedition. These few images I have had the time to process since returning are just a small sample of the sort of incredible scenery we encountered during our two weeks in Greenland and Svalbard. 
Greenland in particular is a landscape photographers paradise and remains for me one of the most geologically amazing locations I have ever visited. No where else have I ever seen such amazing and precipitous mountain formations or such incredible glacial scaring across the face of the landscape. The fjords are lined with magnificent orange and yellow mountains that are a wonderful counterpoint to the gigantic icebergs that drift slowly through the fjords. As the glaciers continue to thin and recede the newly uncovered landscape offers amazingly varied opportunities for photography. The glaciology of the Arctic is truly something to behold and even though the glaciers are sadly in full retreat at an incredibly alarming rate the opportunities for photography remain boundless. The high Arctic is an incredibly special place to visit and photograph and it was as always an absolute privilege and pleasure to share it with all aboard our ship.
I am looking forward to returning next year to Svalbard to lead two dedicated expeditions to photograph Polar Bears north of Svalbard at the edge of the permanent pack ice. These two expeditions will be using much smaller twelve person ships which will enable us to get down to eye level with wild Polar Bears. Both of these expeditions are already sold out, but if you would like to be amongst the first to be notified when the 2016 trips are open for bookings please just drop me an email.
Untitled Film Works to Film Kingdom of the Ice Bear Expedition
Last year I commissioned Untitled Film Works to travel with me to the Arctic to create a short movie of what it was like to be on a photographic expedition in Greenland and Svalbard with a group of dedicated and passionate photographers (In case you missed it you can watch it HERE). The resulting movie was released early this year and spread quickly across the internet. It was a huge amount of fun and we received a large amount of email corresponedence complimenting us on the video. Ultimately, it achieved what I hoped it would – it gave an insight into what it was like to travel on a dedicated polar photography expedition in the Arctic.
Now, I am very excited to announce and share that Untitled Film Works have been commissioned for a second movie and will accompany myself, Daniel Bergmann and ten keen and passionate photographers on our Kingdom of the Ice Bear Expedition north of Svalbard in August next year. During this expedition we plan to photograph and film wild Polar Bears living and hunting in their natural environment on the permanent pack ice under the spectacular midnight sun. We also hope to film many other Arctic species including Walrus, Arctic Fox, Whales and more. We will produce a second short movie and then release it toward the end of next year. The movie will be made freely available as before.
The movie will be shot on a combination of a 6K RED Epic Dragon Cinema Camera as well as several Canon EOS 1DC Cinema cameras. It is my hope that this movie will help raise awareness for not only global warming, but also more specificially, the plight of the Polar Bear as the sea ice continues to thin under its feet. 
Our Kingdom of the Ice Bear Expedition is now almost sold out (only one place remaining). If you are interested in joining us or have any questions about the expedition please just drop me an email.
October Photograph of the Month: Ominous Skies in Greenland
I have been late for the last two months (as I have been on the road) updating my photograph of the month, so I am trying to stay ahead of the curve this month and post early. This photograph was taken on my recent Greenland expedition (a trip report is in the works) from zodiac of a large iceberg off the Greenland coast. This is the first image I have processed from this expedition since I returned. With over 3000 images shot on this expedition alone the process of editing is tedious and laborious. I like to do a quick first pass and grab an image or two that really jumps out at me – in this instance this wonderful iceberg juxtaposed against the dark skies is very evocative for me of what the conditions can be like in the Arctic. These kind of dark and ominous overcast conditions are actually my preferred choice for photographing icebergs. 
Nature’s Best Photography Semi-Finalist 2014 – A Polar Passion
It is the season for photography competition news so following on from yesterday’s post about the Epson International Pano Awards I was very pleased to learn a few days ago that one of my photographs has made it to the semi-finals in Natures Best Photography this year. This is the third year in a row I have had photographs in the semi-finals or finals of Nature’s Best Photography and I feel very honoured to have been included yet again. Unfortunately I cannot yet divulge which photograph is in the semi-finals – suffice to say the category of choice for me was ‘Polar Passion’.
Nature’s Best Photography is one of the premiere and most respected Nature photography competitions in the market place today (along with BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year). Importantly (for me) Nature’s Best consider the art of photography the photographers ability to capture an incredible image in the field at time of capture and not just create one on their computer. This is a really important distinction for me as it is in lock step with my own Ethics for Image Capture and post production. As such the submission of RAW files is mandatory to validate them against the high resolution TIFF file at point of entry. Of equal importance to me that the image be captured in the field is that Nature’s Best Photography also place significant emphasis on the print even though the initial round of judging is done digitally. With over 25,000 entries this year it would just be impossible to judge the initial round on the printed page. Kudos to Nature’s Best however for taking the print into consideration in the semi-finals and finals. This is a stance I feel more photography competitions would do well to follow.
It is worth taking a moment to reiterate my thoughts on post production as I am seeing a multitude of over processed, over saturated, and frankly over cooked images across a range of social media and competitions of late as photographers strive to outdo each other (saturation slider goes to +11) and stand out from the crowd. I recently judged several photography competitions for magazines here in Australia and the overall trend was overcooked and over saturated images to my eye. This is of course a personal aesthetic and personal judgement, but its certainly a rising trend. But then this is also a subjective medium and there are as many opinions as there are photographers and frankly none are less valid than another. Along with this trend is an increase in heavily manipulated photographs that include dropped in skies, multiple image composites etc. This is not surprising really as the tools to create such work have become easier to use and more accessible. Suffice to say, from my own ethical perspective I strive to create my photographs at time of capture and not create something that did not exist in Nature. Is this a distinction between a Nature photographer and a Landscape photographer? Possibly… and it could be argued that this is the case, but I certainly hope not. Certainly there are competitions out there touting themselves as ‘the’ landscape competition of choice that have an anything goes approach to post production. I avoid these type of competitions as I feel they are more about creating digital art than about real photography. It certainly shows in the those images that get awarded that the skill of the retoucher is far more heavily weighted than the photographers ability to actually capture a great shot. This is not to say that there isn’t a time and place for this type of post production – I just feel it isn’t in Nature or landscape photography. Categories such as ‘Illustrative’ are far more suitable for anything goes post production. That is my personal judgement however and too each their own.
All of this is good and well of course and it is important to note that standing on an iceberg for forty days, or camping out in the desert for a month does not guarantee a good photograph – because it certainly doesn’t. Time in the field in itself does not guarantee a great capture, or even a mediocre one for that matter; but it certainly stacks the odds in your favour to encounter great subject and great light. Then its up to the skill of the photographer to capture and craft the image at time of capture. Post production should then be used to enhance what was captured – not create something that did not exist. That said, turning a sours ear into a silk purse in Photoshop really does not require much photographic skill – just solid retouching skills. Personally, when I am wowed by a new photograph and I later learn that the photographer dropped in a different sky, or moved an island, or otherwise heavily manipulated the image I feel somewhat cheated. It is my assumption (sometimes incorrectly) that the image was found in Nature and I am left deflated and often disappointed to learn it was a digital creation in post production. I have blogged (ok, ranted) about this on several other occasions but I feel compelled to restate my feelings and opinion for what they are worth in the face of some of the images I am seeing surface across competitions and social media of late. The flip side of this coin is that I am also seeing some really incredible photography emerge across the internet that seems to just drift by quietly and largely unnoticed in the face of the overwhelming noise. The good news is these photographs and photographers are out there producing really incredible work. You just have to filter through the white noise to find and enjoy them. Ill have a list together soon that includes a range of contemporary photographers whose work I believe is being largely missed or ignored outside of their home countries. Watch this space as I think you will very much enjoy the art of great photography.
In other competition news this weekend will see the opening of the 2014 Australian Professional Photography Awards in Sydney. The APPA awards are eagerly looked forward to by all who enter (myself included) and it will, as always be interesting watch the live-stream of the judging. The Landscape category remains an ‘anything goes’ post production fiesta so I have avoided this category entirely again this year and instead chosen a category more in lock step with my own thoughts on post production. – ‘Next Print Please….’
www.WILDNATUREPHOTOTRAVEL.com 