It is hard for me to believe it has already been five years since I started this photography blog. It still feels like only a few months ago that I sat down and decided to start writing about my photographic experiences, workshops, expeditions and travel photography. At the time I was not really sure exactly where I was planning to head with my own photography (or this blog for that matter); or perhaps a more accurate description would be I had not yet fully realised the direction I was taking. Looking back, I think the idea of working as a full time professional Nature photographer was always my ideal and the path now seems very clear, but I was perhaps to scared to allow myself to fully realise the dream. My feeling nowadays is you should always chase your passion regardless of the pursuit. As artists, we do our best work when we are most passionate about our subject. Passion and love of the subject and craft always shines and shows in the finished product. Wether you like to shoot macro images of insects, wildlife or grand vistas it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you get out there and photograph that subject. Do it with passion, do it because you love it and do it as often as you can.
It feels sort of ironic for me that this post celebrating five years of blogging and sharing my photographic experiences was scheduled to go live on this date automatically as I am currently in South Georgia and Antarctica leading a twenty one day photographic expedition with good friend Andy Biggs. This particular expedition was one I had been looking forward to for a very long time. With so many good friends and passionate photographers on board our ship and such world class wildlife and landscape I can think of no better place to be to celebrate the five year anniversary. If you missed out on this expedition, or if you have always wanted to travel to South Georgia Island then stay tuned – I will soon be formally announcing a new dedicated expedition to South Georgia Island in November 2015 that includes an unprecedented 10-day permit for photography in this world class location. Renowned photographer Art Wolfe once said something along the lines of “If you can only photograph wildlife in one place in your life, then make it South Georgia Island.” I have to say I agree with him. Interest in this 2015 expedition has been extraordinary and there are already only two places remaining before this trip will be sold out. If you want to get the drop on one of the last places please just send me an email to register your interest and I will get back to you when I return to Ushuaia.
I want to take a moment at this point to thank all of you who have been regular readers, and all of you with whom I have had the pleasure to travel with and photograph over the years (including the many photographers sharing the current expedition in South Georgia Island). The collective passion a group of photographers exude is powerful and intoxicating and an incredible source of inspiration to myself and all photographers. I feel very fortunate to have been able to share in so many photographic adventures with so many fantastic photographers – many of whom have become firm long term friends and are incredible photographers in their own right.
It was quite a hard decision deciding what photograph to share for this five year anniversary post but in the end I decided to share a new image from a project I am currently working on and hope to finish by the end of next year. This project will be a celebration of Polar Life in both the extreme North and South latitudes of the globe and will include photographs of a number of different species. This new work will appear in full once I finish the printing of my book ‘Extreme Latitude’ early next year.
This photograph of an Arctic Fox was taken from a snow blind in March this year at Hornvik in the extreme North West of Iceland. This location is only accessible by boat and is many, many miles from any civilisation. There are no roads into this area – it is pure wilderness. In the deep winter months when I visited this location I spent the better part of a week in a snow blind photographing a number of Arctic Fox. This large male was foraging in the snow and bristled when he found something edible so close to my location. It was shot with a Canon EOS1DX and Canon 600mm F4L IS MKII.
As I have previously written, Ushuaia itself is a wonderful town with some great restaurants, shops and cafe’s and it has been fantastic to meet up with both old friends with whom I have had the pleasure of travelling with many times now, but also new friends who will be experiencing the magnificence of the Great White Continent for the very first time. In some ways I envy those travelling for their first time to Antarctica. Seeing Antarctica for the very first time is an awe inspiring experience and photographing it with fresh eyes is something you only ever get to do once. I always get a huge thrill from the visceral and palpable air of excitement first time and repeat visitors radiate as they board the ship and we throw off our lines and sail down the Beagle Channel. I am very much looking forward to our experiences ahead and sharing everything we discover.
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