I arrived in Longyearbyen a few hours ago where the temperature is currently -5º Celsius plus a little wind chill factor. Outside the frozen mountainous landscape is covered in fresh snow and is spectacular to behold – I am looking forward to heading outside shortly to grab a few snapshots of the town in winter. It is fantastic and very exciting to be here in winter and tomorrow I will be heading north with a few friends on snow mobiles to a remote hut by the side of one of Svalbard’s spectacular glaciers on our scouting trip to photograph Polar Bears, Reindeer and landscapes under winter arctic light. For now it is time to enjoy a few feature comforts and the warmth of Basecamp whilst making final gear preparations for our departure tomorrow morning. 
Category: Workshops and Expeditions
Workshops and Expeditions around the world.
Iceland Winter Workshop 2015 Complete – Heading North in search of Polar Bears
Daniel Bergmann and I have just wrapped up an absolutely brilliant 2015 Winter workshop here in Iceland. We had some incredible light, Aurora and experiences during our time exploring the winter countryside with a fabulous group of passionate photographers. In brief, we photographed the spectacular snow covered landscapes of Southern Iceland, partially frozen waterfalls, and the magical Northern Lights over a period of ten days.
A full trip report and photographs from the workshop will come later once I have a chance to sort through the images and fully digest our shared experiences. Just a reminder if you would like to join us on our 2016 Winter workshop to Iceland there are now only a few places remaining before it will be sold out. We will be exploring the northern landscapes of Iceland and visiting some of the spectacular northern features and landscapes whilst they are covered in fresh snow. You can register your interest by dropping me an email.
I am headed North tomorrow via Oslo to the small town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard on a scouting trip to photograph Polar Bears and Reindeer in the deep freeze of an Arctic Winter. Longyearbyen is the world’s most northerly permanent settlement at 78º North and has a population of around 2,500 people. In summer, it is the jumping off point for many Arctic adventures including my own Polar Bear Photography Expeditions. In winter, it is a sleepy frozen town held tightly in the clutches of the Arctic night. Longyearbyen is only my starting point for this scouting trip however, and I will be heading further north with a few friends via snowmobile (snowmobile and dog sleds are the only way to get further north in winter) to a very remote hut by the edge of one of Svalbard’s most spectacular glaciers. We intend to spend a week at this location photographing wildlife and landscapes in the Arctic winter light. At this time of year we are expecting temperatures to potentially dip as low as -30 Celsius and possibly even colder, but we are also expecting incredible winter light should the weather and conditions co-operate. Because of the extremes of temperature at this time of year as well as the danger of camping with Polar Bears we are utilising the small hut as our Basecamp and will explore the landscape daily on snowmobiles and then return to rest in the warmth of the hut. This is the first time a photographic expedition of this nature has been undertaken to my knowledge and it should be an incredible experience. It is our hope that we may be able to offer this remarkable opportunity as a workshop expedition in the near future if our scouting trip is successful. I am very excited about this new opportunity and will have more to report once I return. In the meantime it is time to catch a few hours sleep before I catch my flight to Oslo.
Update from Yellowstone February 2015
We are currently in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone on day three of our Winter Workshop to this amazing National Park. It has been unseasonably warm here in Yellowstone the past few days (actually, according to the locals it has been unseasonably warm for some time now) with temperatures hovering in the mid to high 40’s (Fahrenheit) during the day and really only dipping below 32 (Fahrenheit) during the night. There isn’t much snow around in the Lamar at present which has made access easy, but has somewhat limited our photographic opportunities to date. My own hopes of heavy snowfall to help isolate and add context to the animals in this area have not yet been realised. The weather is supposed to turn cold in the next two days with forecast snowfall in Yellowstone and we are hopeful this will add that missing magic element that brings photographs from this region to life.
We have had some good wildlife encounters in the first few days with the real highlight for me being a pair of wonderful Bald Eagles that we spent around an hour photographing by the side of the road. We were fortunate to stumble across the two eagles perched in trees deep in a canyon which put us at almost eye level by the roadside. 
After a sunrise shoot tomorrow in the Lamar Valley we will pack up and head toward Old Faithful and spend several days exploring and photographing in this area. There have been reports of Bobcat activity along the Madison River and I am keen to see if we can find and photograph one of these elusive cats in the wild.
Antarctica The Wild Side – Weddell Sea Expedition
In February 2016 I will be leading a brand new expedition to Antarctica. Unlike previous years this new expedition to Antarctica will depart in February instead of early November and will take us deep into the Weddell Sea – the Wild Side of Antarctica. The expedition dates are February 9th – February 20th 2016. The Weddell sea is an area of Antarctica pretty much inaccessible earlier in the season due to sea ice conditions and our intention is to explore and photograph this rarely visited wild side of Antarctica. We will be using an ice-hardened expedition class ship ‘Polar Pioneer’ so we can push quite a lot of ice safely; which will enable us to get much further south than most vessels.
We will sail across the Bransfield Strait to Antarctic Sound on our journey toward the Weddell Sea. Antarctic Sound is home to literally monolothic tabular icebergs that break off the Antarctic ice shelf and float up out of the Weddell Sea. There are incredible photographic opportunities in this area and we will stop to take advantage of spectacular tabular icebergs as we encounter them. We then plan to travel down the east side of the peninsula as deeply as we can penetrate into the sea ice.
The peninsula’s wild side will welcome us with huge icebergs and spectacular scenery. We will likely visit Paulet Island, a conical volcano with a huge Adelie penguin colony that rises several hundred feet from the islands periphery to its lower slopes. Penguin covered icebergs drift in the currents set against towering ice cliffs. We also hope to explore Prince Gustav Channel and Seymour Island. We will also explore the west coast of the peninsula which offers glaciated peaks rising from a maze of islands and waterways alive with seals, penguins and whales. At the conclusion of the expedition we will sail back across the Drake Passage to Ushuaia.
This expedition is for a strictly limited number of just 54 photographers. With many of the expedition ships now taking well over 100 passengers this is a unique opportunity to take advantage of a small group on an ice hardened expedition ship in one of the most rarely visited areas in Antarctica. Due to preliminary expressions of interest and bookings there are now only a few places remaining before this expedition will be sold out. If you would like to confirm cabin availability or would like any additional information about this expedition please drop me an email to info@jholko.com. A detailed PDF information flyer and itinerary can be downloaded clicking on weddellsea2016.
Arrived in Yellowstone for 2015 Winter Workshop
A few hours ago I finally completed the long journey from Australia and arrived in Bozeman for my Yellowstone Winter workshop. It is a very nice feeling to have abandoned the heat of the Australian summer for the snow and ice of a Yellowstone winter. Currently its quite a balmy 14 degrees Celsius outside and the air is dry and crisp. It is an even nicer feeling to have made it through American airport security more or less without hassle.
Tomorrow will be a rest day to recover from travel and jet lag before we commence our workshop into the park proper. I need to go shopping shortly for a new pair of winter boots for both Yellowstone, Iceland and the Arctic and have my eye on a pair of the new Baffin Expedition boots. I had considered using my Arctic Sport Muck Boots for this expedition but was concerned they may not be warm enough in the Yellowstone winter. They definitely would not be warm enough for the expedition I am doing into the Arctic after Iceland, so its time to add yet one more pair of boots to the wardrobe.
We have a pretty solid schedule planed out for the next ten days so I am unsure of how much if any time I may get to post updates to my Blog. We will just have to see what Yellowstone has to offer…
