South Georgia

South Georgia has, after its own fashion, given us a warm welcome!
Surely, we have had showers of snow and katabastic wind-attacks, but
every beach landing so far has been smooth, and we've had more sunshine
than clouds. The experiences will be etched on my mind forever. The
wandering albatross and its half-grown offspring at Prion Island. The
king penguins, elephant seals and fur seals at Salisbury plains and St.
Andrew's bay, and the old ruins of the whaling station at Prince Olav
bay. At the latter we were not permitted on shore, however, because the
buildings are in such a condition that they may fold like a card house
over any visitor careless enough to just sneeze.

Not sure I'm able to put down a lot of words to describe these events
yet. They are all grand, both on geographical, emotional and
photographic scale. From the last 36 hours I have obtained about 20000
images. I haven't had time to do anything but to just store them on the
computer and make backups.

Oh, yes, and one more thing; geotagging the images by matching them with
the log from my little GPS unit. The job has just insinuated itself into
my workflow, and it seems like the most natural thing of the world to do
by now. It's just a few clicks to harvest the data from the GPS and
store it. Then another few clicks with GeoSetter to match the log with
the images. Works every time!

I have also experimented a little with the video functionality of K-7.
More on that later, when I begin to make heads and tails of it.

Further, I have also FINALLY got around to use a good-quality sound
recorder I bought 3 years ago. I have made recordings of the somewhat
obscene sounds of elephant seals, and the all together puzzling sounds
of the king penguins and their chicks.

To visit Grytviken was also quite an experience. The place is simple
enough to tour, there are only a few stops. Ernest Shackletons grave,
the whaling museum, the church, the old derelict buildings and stranded
ships from the whale industry, and the recently opened hydropower plant.
And the souvernir shop, of course, where I bought an obligatory "been
there" t-shirt and some christmas presents. The bill was paid by credit
card, which gave a certain feeling of paradox; being so far, far away
from anywhere else and yet pay with plastic money.

We still have one day left here before heading towards the Antarctic
Peninsula. The landing tomorrow will (most likely) be our only chance to
see Macaroni penguins. Fingers crossed it works out.

Days at sea

North-westerly winds have nudged us in the back all the way from the
Falklands towards South Georgia. The ship has been making roughly 13
knots, and our guides are pleased to remind us, often, that it will mean
more time ashore at South Georgia.

At the time of writing we have had just over 50 hours at sea since we
left the Falklands. A lot of time has been spent weeding the pictures
from the beaches at Falklands, and subsequently assigning keywords and
making backups. The most convenient place for these activites is of
course the ship's lounge, where we also get to glance enviously at each
other's captures and exchange experiences from the various shoots. Some
of us have also spent a few hours on deck, photographing seabirds as
they zoom past in their search for food surfacing in the wake of the
ship. Albatrosses, petrels and so on. Don't ask me to recognise those
species yet, they all look like some kinda fulmar to me. But it's great
practice to have a go. The DA*300/4 lens is seeing a lot of work, as
does the Metz flash and the BetterBeamer. The latter is really doing
wonders for the effective flash range, and enables me to shoot images I
would definately have missed without. It also opens for some creative
flash photograpy. I will pursue this as my stomach allows; my
seasickness has begun stirring again. It feels a bit unfair, because my
roommate is having a great time. Apparently completely unaffected. I
applied another patch of scopolamin a couple of hours ago, but I'm still
not good. Have to lie down frequently to calm the system.

Yesterday our ship was accompanied by a flock of Hourglass dolphins for
nearly 20 minutes. They made beautifully gracious jumps along the side
of the ship, sometimes two or three together, and all of them in
suitably photogenic distance from the ship. However, again I fumbled.
Just like on the whale safari at the Valdez peninsula. Seems like me an
whales don't go well together. All my dolphin shots came out slightly
blurred because my shutter speeds weren't short enough. Grrr...

A few hours ago we passed Shag Rock, a set of jagged peaks protruding
out of the sea in the middle of nowhere. Coloured by guano and inhabited
by thousands, it was indeed a Shag's rock. Our guides were very pleased
to have the opportunity to sail close by, explaining that this point is
normally passed after nightfall. The favourable winds are credited for
this one too.

As of now, our preparations for landing at South Georgia have begun. We
have been instructed to vacuum-clean all outer garments we intend to
bring ashore, as well as all photobags and other equipment that may
become exposed to the island's soil. We will also have to scrub our
boots thoroughly in a disinfecting liquid before setting foot on the
island. Their hope is that these precautions will keep foreign seeds,
micro-organisms and insects from spreading into the ecosystem. It's
tedious work, and with only two vacuum cleaners and over 40 passengers,
it's quite a queue to get it done.

If you have read this far, it might now occur to you that I'm babbling
about trivial and rather insignificant things. You would be right. I'm
bored. :-)

And looking forward to seeing South Georgia tomorrow.