Icebreaker Ortelius

Ron Niebrugge Antarctica, Photos, Travel 3 Comments

Our icebreaker Ortelius at Brown Bluff, Antarctica.

I have missed a few days on the blog as we traveled, got setup and enjoyed some warm weather in Anza-Borrego, but all is well.  A storm is passing through the next few days that could bring rain to the desert – could make for some interesting photo opps!

Crabeater Seal

Ron Niebrugge Antarctica, Photos, Travel Leave a Comment

Crabeater Seals.  I think Crabeater Seal is a funny name for a seal that doesn’t eat crabs.  They eat krill and other crustaceans.

I found it difficult to capture interesting images of seal in Antarctica because they pretty much just laid there.  I thought this was one of my more interesting seal images thanks to that wonderful background!

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 70-200 f/2.8 lens at 180, ISO 320, f/8 and 1/2000 of a second.

Antarctic Circle

Ron Niebrugge Antarctica, Photos, Travel 7 Comments

This was at 2:29 in the morning as we neared the Antarctic Circle.

Our icebreaker cruised through ice flows like this as if they were nothing.  But, the large ice ridges off in the distance were a different story.  The captain studied them closely before picking his route so that he could push through a weak spot.  We were allowed in the bridge and it was interesting listening to our captain shout out orders.  Things like “Go right there and ram it!”  Even though he was Russian, he was giving orders in broken English I think in part for our entertainment.  I got the feeling that icebreaker Captains live for this – at least it appeared that our Captain was having a good time.