Edin and I have recently returned from our long planned (30 something years for me, fewer for her!) adventure to Antarctica and it has left me somewhat at a loss for words. It is, without doubt, the most incredible place that I have visited. Awesome would be the correct adjective if it had not been denigrated and rendered worthless by being used to describe pizza! The magnitude of the landscape and abundance of the wildlife is indescribable – photos cannot adequately convey the scale of it. It seemed frequently, as though we were living inside a CGI movie set – everything seemed too large and unlike anything in past experience  to be real but it was completely real. The remoteness also means that there is no obvious impact of man despite the fact that our influence on climate change is a major problem and our past exploitation of cetaceans means that there are fewer than there should be.

I have always loved Africa, having been fortunate to be born and grow up there. It has always had a strong pull dragging me back time after time, but there has always been a conflict. To enjoy Africa’s loveliness you need to consciously try and turn a blind eye to all the manmade madness that is there. As photographers we need to be more observant than most and see what others do not, so turning blind eyes is impossible, and the beauty is always tainted or diluted by that reality. In Antarctica there was no need for a blind eye – you can be enveloped by it all and marvel at everything.

This post is just a teaser with some early images – I am still working my way through the first edit of the 15 000+ image, 500Gb collection before starting serious image processing . Future posts will cover different aspects of our trip including some birding in the sweltering heat of Buenos Aires en route, the amazing Beagle Channel in Patagonia as well as Antarctica and travel tips for photographers intending to visit the 7th continent. Use the subscribe option to automatically get each new blog post as they’re published and ask any questions you have. Edin will be blogging on her experience and her first post is here.