Chinstrap penguin calling, Antarctica. On our first zodiac excursion we encountered these two chinstraps posing for us on an iceberg in a snowstorm.

Claudia and I just returned home from Antarctica. What a wonderful trip! It’s hard to believe that this place actually exists here on earth, because it seems so different than everywhere else on this planet. It’s other-worldly, yet strikingly beautiful.

I made a lot of photos on this trip – over 35,000! Some of that was wildlife photography, which demands capturing many frames to catch the right pose or moment of action. And most of landscape photos were also hand-held from a moving ship or zodiac, where I had to capture a series of frames to ensure catching the right angle as we passed one compelling scene after another. But the biggest problem was that the place is just so damned beautiful that there were photos everywhere I looked!

I’m still sorting through all those images, and thinking about how to share them. I can’t possibly post all my favorites here on the blog, but I want to share some of them, and try to convey a little bit what the whole experience was like. So I’m going to describe a couple of specific time periods, starting here with the first 36 hours. After that I plan to write about January 18th, a wonderful day filled with beautiful light and scenery. After that… we’ll see where it goes.

The First 36 Hours

We boarded our chartered flight from Punta Arenas, Chile, to King George island in the South Shetland Islands at 5:30 a.m. on January 16th. An early start, but we were raring to go.

Boarding the penguin plane in Punta Arenas, Chile. (Claudia is the second person on the stairway.)

A few hours later we were standing on a black-sand beach, waiting to board zodiacs to take us to our ship, the Hans Hansson. A half-dozen chinstrap penguins swam up and stood on the shore 30 feet away. Welcome to Antarctica!

The Hans Hansson is small, with just enough room for our nine participants, Claudia, me, my wonderful co-instructor Chris Linder, and the ship’s crew of seven people. It’s intentionally small; Justin Black, Visionary Wild‘s founder, chose this ship because it can go places bigger ships can’t, and, with only our group on board, we can adjust our route to make the most of the conditions and photo opportunities. I would learn how important these things were over the next two weeks.

As we motored away from King George island through Maxwell Bay, we could see huge glaciers on either side. And the ice grew more abundant as we headed farther south. It’s estimated that 80% of the Antarctic Peninsula is covered in ice, but even that number seemed conservative to me. In most of the places we visited the only land not covered in ice consisted of steep cliffs and a few rock outcrops.

Glacier and peak, King George island, South Shetland Islands. Our first hour aboard the Hans Hansson brought us past beautiful scenes of glaciers, rocks, light, and clouds.

On that first day and evening we crossed Bransfield Straight to get to the peninsula. Our ship was rocking in the straight’s swells, but we were grateful that we had flown across the much-bigger waves of the Drake Passage, which is notorious as one of the roughest stretches of ocean in the world.

As we sailed southwest, we saw big mountains and glaciers on the islands to our north. Sun broke through the clouds and created sunbeams over the water:

Clouds, sunbeams, and iceberg, Bransfield Straight, Antarctica

Later, close to sunset, as I was sitting in the galley going through some of my photos, Claudia looked out a porthole and told me there was light breaking through on the mountains. So I grabbed my camera and raced outside to catch the sunset light on the glaciated mountains:

Ice-covered mountains at sunset, South Shetland Islands. We passed these mountains as the last light of the sun broke through on our first day.

I was quickly finding out that striking scenery is all around you in Antarctica. It’s not just confined to a few special spots. Massive glaciers, stunning mountains, and sculpted icebergs abound. That, coupled with the 10 p.m. sunsets and 3 a.m. sunrises, meant that I wouldn’t be getting much sleep!

The next morning found us anchored in a calm, beautiful inlet, with sunlight hitting the peaks across the bay:

Sunlit mountains, Antarctica. From our anchorage the first morning.

After breakfast we ventured out in zodiacs for the first time. We soon learned the routine of putting on our rain gear, Muck Boots, and life jackets, and boarding the zodiacs to go ashore or cruise through interesting areas that even the Hans Hansson couldn’t fit through. This first trip took us to some narrow, rocky clefts between small islands. As we entered the first passage, two chinstrap penguins hopped out of the water onto an iceberg in front of us. It had started snowing by then, which was a perfect complement to the scene (shown here and at the top of this post). The two penguins obligingly posed atop the iceberg for a good 25 minutes:

Chinstrap penguins in a snowstorm, Antarctica. Another pose from the chinstraps on our first zodiac excursion.

We moved on to photograph a Weddell seal, an ice arch, and other interesting ice and rock formations, then headed back to the ship for lunch. In the afternoon we passed an iceberg with penguins, then made our first landing at a gentoo penguin colony, where we got to watch lots of classic penguin behavior: nest-exchange displays, rock gathering and stealing, and parents feeing chicks. A classic Antarctic experience, and a great way to end our first full day.

Ice arches, Antarctica. Our zodiac drivers found these arches on our first morning.

Gentoo penguins diving off an iceberg, Antarctica. The captain slowed the ship so we could photograph these penguins on an iceberg.

Gentoo penguin parent and chicks, Antarctica. From our first landing at a penguin colony. There were chicks of all ages and sizes at this colony – and even some parents still incubating eggs.

It was an amazing, wonderful 36 hours – a great introduction to Antarctica. But the next day would be even better. Stay tuned!

— Michael Frye

Related Post: A Quick Note From Antarctica

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He lives near Yosemite National Park in California, but travels extensively to photograph natural landscapes in the American West and throughout the world.

Michael uses light, weather, and design to make photographs that capture the mood of the landscape, and convey the beauty, power, and mystery of nature. His work has received numerous awards, including the North American Nature Photography Association’s 2023 award for Fine Art in Nature Photography. Michael’s photographs have appeared in publications around the world, and he’s the author and/or principal photographer of several books, including Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, and The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite.

Michael loves to share his knowledge of photography through articles, books, workshops, online courses, and his blog. He’s taught over 200 workshops focused on landscape photography, night photography, digital image processing, and printing.