PhotoAnswer to the previous day's question: waddle
“Be yourself. The world worships the original.” ~Ingrid Bergman
I ended up staying up late and finishing my blog post…therefore, I saw the sun set and rise as I went to my room at 4:45. We were greeted at breakfast with a reminder about St. Lucia’s Day, the Swedish holiday as we were given the traditional sweet break made with a hint of sarrafin. On our way to Neko harbor, we travelled briefly through Lemaire Channel but instead we went in the Gerlache Strait but the ice was very thick in the channel.
The weather has been very pleasant hovering around freezing. If the wind is blowing and you are not dressed properly, it is miserable! There were a plethora of photo opportunities as we witnessed tabular bergs, which are only found in Antarctica. These flat pieces of ice are broken off pieces of shelf ice, formed from freezing sea water, accumulated snowfall and sometimes glacier ice moving down from higher land to the coast. We sailed through a great deal of ice formed from glaciers – many types are identified by their size. Brash ice is smaller than a baseball, growler ice is less than 1 meter, bergy bits are between 1 – 5 meters and icebergs are defined as being at least 5 meters tall. The light bright blue in the ice is indescribable. The color of ice is actually blue, but unless there is a very large piece, your eyes cannot detect it. Icebergs that appear white contain a lot of air bubbles and that reflect back all of the colors of the spectrum. So in order to see the bluest ice, you would want to look at the bottom of the iceberg – assuming it is the oldest part – because there would be greater pressure making fewer air bubbles and denser ice. Blue cannot be absorbed in that ice, but instead is reflected back.
Amongst these various ice types, we observed penguins and seals on tabular bergs and humpback and killer whales amongst the brash and bergy ice. It was amazing to see these beautiful creatures thriving in this extreme environment. And certainly, the snow covered mountains surrounding the water and ice was stunning.
In the afternoon, we went to Neko Harbour. This harbor is surrounded by a stunning glacier, which displays crevices and evidence of calving (the glacier breaking off). In fact, I was on the opposite side of the harbor and indeed a section broke off and it sounded like a loud clap of thunder. I observed the splash and a large wave rippling away from the site of the collapsed ice.
At this site, there were Gentoo Penguins and I used my time-lapsed photography to capture a penguin colony’s activities by condensing four minutes of activity to 20 seconds. Of course I couldn’t resist the urge to take pictures of yet, more penguins. The Gentoo lay, two eggs (about the size of a goose egg) and the male and female share the responsibility of incubating the egg. I saw several penguin pairs trade places, which allowed be to get a close up view of the eggs and the brood patches of the parents. I observed several penguins pointing their head to the sky and making a trumpet like squawky noise. I have read it may be a territorial statement or a form of communication to its mate. Nonetheless, the penguins I observed are seldom quiet. When walking on the soft snow, sometimes it is difficult not to “post hole”, an expression used to indicate a footstep went down deep into the snow – like deeper than your knee because the penguins can literally get stuck in these holes. If a person postholes, they are asked to kick some snow and gently fill the hole in so the penguin doesn’t get stuck.
After dinner, we took more pictures from the deck of the boat. We also used our Theta cameras, which allow us to take 360 degree images of a certain point. The camera, which has fish eyes, syncs to a cell phone that has the required app downloaded. The pictures turned our very cool!
Unless stated, all photos were taken by Beth Thomas.
“Be yourself. The world worships the original.” ~Ingrid Bergman
I ended up staying up late and finishing my blog post…therefore, I saw the sun set and rise as I went to my room at 4:45. We were greeted at breakfast with a reminder about St. Lucia’s Day, the Swedish holiday as we were given the traditional sweet break made with a hint of sarrafin. On our way to Neko harbor, we travelled briefly through Lemaire Channel but instead we went in the Gerlache Strait but the ice was very thick in the channel.
The weather has been very pleasant hovering around freezing. If the wind is blowing and you are not dressed properly, it is miserable! There were a plethora of photo opportunities as we witnessed tabular bergs, which are only found in Antarctica. These flat pieces of ice are broken off pieces of shelf ice, formed from freezing sea water, accumulated snowfall and sometimes glacier ice moving down from higher land to the coast. We sailed through a great deal of ice formed from glaciers – many types are identified by their size. Brash ice is smaller than a baseball, growler ice is less than 1 meter, bergy bits are between 1 – 5 meters and icebergs are defined as being at least 5 meters tall. The light bright blue in the ice is indescribable. The color of ice is actually blue, but unless there is a very large piece, your eyes cannot detect it. Icebergs that appear white contain a lot of air bubbles and that reflect back all of the colors of the spectrum. So in order to see the bluest ice, you would want to look at the bottom of the iceberg – assuming it is the oldest part – because there would be greater pressure making fewer air bubbles and denser ice. Blue cannot be absorbed in that ice, but instead is reflected back.
Amongst these various ice types, we observed penguins and seals on tabular bergs and humpback and killer whales amongst the brash and bergy ice. It was amazing to see these beautiful creatures thriving in this extreme environment. And certainly, the snow covered mountains surrounding the water and ice was stunning.
In the afternoon, we went to Neko Harbour. This harbor is surrounded by a stunning glacier, which displays crevices and evidence of calving (the glacier breaking off). In fact, I was on the opposite side of the harbor and indeed a section broke off and it sounded like a loud clap of thunder. I observed the splash and a large wave rippling away from the site of the collapsed ice.
At this site, there were Gentoo Penguins and I used my time-lapsed photography to capture a penguin colony’s activities by condensing four minutes of activity to 20 seconds. Of course I couldn’t resist the urge to take pictures of yet, more penguins. The Gentoo lay, two eggs (about the size of a goose egg) and the male and female share the responsibility of incubating the egg. I saw several penguin pairs trade places, which allowed be to get a close up view of the eggs and the brood patches of the parents. I observed several penguins pointing their head to the sky and making a trumpet like squawky noise. I have read it may be a territorial statement or a form of communication to its mate. Nonetheless, the penguins I observed are seldom quiet. When walking on the soft snow, sometimes it is difficult not to “post hole”, an expression used to indicate a footstep went down deep into the snow – like deeper than your knee because the penguins can literally get stuck in these holes. If a person postholes, they are asked to kick some snow and gently fill the hole in so the penguin doesn’t get stuck.
After dinner, we took more pictures from the deck of the boat. We also used our Theta cameras, which allow us to take 360 degree images of a certain point. The camera, which has fish eyes, syncs to a cell phone that has the required app downloaded. The pictures turned our very cool!
Unless stated, all photos were taken by Beth Thomas.
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