Antarctica 2011

In the Weddell Sea, penguins transverse an iceberg

January, 2011 found me once again in the Antarctic, aboard the National Geographic Explorer as the “National Geographic Expert”.  Two, back-to-back trips provided a lot of photographic possibilities.  We had an amazing experience in observing a leopard seal attacking a group of  Adélie Penguin chicks(Pygoscelis adeliae) near Brown Bluff. On the Antarctic peninsula, this remote area is remarkable in not only it’s starkness, but also in the abundance of Adelie & Gentoo penguins The leopard seal had been sleeping on an ice flow for a couple of hours, not far off shore.  Hundreds of penguin chicks were experiencing their first exposure to the water, many getting pretty freaked out by the cold and leaping on the closest piece of ice.  A few had actually jumped on the ice with the seal, who seemed to ignore them at this point.  Finally, the seal slipped into the water, and Lindblad photographer/naturalist Mike Nolan and l were close witness to the attack on several of the chicks.  Below, you’ll find a series of images from this event.   Click Here to be taken to a gallery of images from this trip

all images, Olympus E-5,  the penguins on the iceberg was shot with the 90-250mm with 2x extender.  1/800th @ F7.1, 200 ISO 852mm (35mm equivalent)

Leopard seal attack, all images Olympus 50-200mm, various exposures all @ 200 ISO, final image 1/1000 @ F5.6, 120mm (35mm equivalent)