I have just returned from a week with Edin in the Southern Ocean travelling with Heritage Expeditions visiting the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands. We had a “challenging” weather forecast to deal with and reversed the itinerary of the expedition to make the best use of weather windows at the three island groups we visited.

This saw us spend the first 40 hours busting into south westerly winds and swells with Campbell Island as our target. This was a bit uncomfortable and resulted in some injuries on board but having that time in constant company of albatrosses, petrels, storm petrels, shearwaters and prions was a delight.

Having a cold wind in my face and seeing the mastery of these birds gliding effortlessly in the wind flushes the stresses of the world from me.

I have a pile of images to go through and have just pulled these four from the first morning of the trip. There will be plenty more to share as I progress through them. Conditions were very different from the trip I did to the Subantarctics in 2016. Generally the weather was a bit wilder this time with rougher sea conditions. This was excellent for the birds and we had endless opportunities despite being unable to get out on the zodiacs at one of my favourite spots on Auckland Island.

One of the things I was looking forward to was the opportunity to use the Nikon D850 and D500 in this situation. On my last trip I used the D810 and D3s but have found the group area AF of the newer bodies so much better for birds in flight. I have both bodies set up the same and they work beautifully for flying or more stationary birds.

Photos with Nikon D850 and Nikon 24-120mm f4 (top photo) or Nikon 500mm f5.6PF (bird photos)