My first GoPro project from Antarctica

I'm not a computer genius nor am I anything close to intermediate level when it comes to anything related to photo and video editing.  It was a challenge just learning how to use the GoPro effectively and even more challenging to download, upload, edit and post clips.  I've been messing around with GoPro Studio for a few weeks and finally decided to try putting a project together.  Creating a project involves going through all of the footage, loading the footage with interesting clips to the studio and then splicing them together.  My first project is simple but captures my favorite moments from our morning excursion at Neko Harbor.  You'll get to see our actual continent landing, our encounters with penguins, and our departure from the continent as we tow the kayaks to a very quiet launch point.  At the end you'll see a clip taken from the nose of the kayak as I paddle through an inlet.

I have not added music yet and have muted the sound but I'll post an update when I find a song that fits!

Sea Kayaking in Antarctica: Waves, whales, seals and bergy bits!

Thank you to everyone who took such amazing photos of the kayaking group.  It was a little difficult for us to take photos when we were trying to avoid icebergs, wind gusts and whales!

I love this photo!  The water is so glassy and perfect.  The kayaking group wore yellow suits that made us stand out.  Kayaking on the trip was an add-on that had to be pre-purchased before boarding and it was limited to 16 participants. We had 12 in our group on this trip and if you're considering going to Antarctica, I would say kayaking is a must!

I love this photo because it captures the size proportions and makes me think we were insane for kayaking near these animals!

The infamous Leopard Seal spectacular.

Vicky holding up her bergy bit!

I think I spotted something.

Sully & Jordan in Wilhelmina Bay after we had an incredible late afternoon paddling with whales.

This is one of the beach launches- I think we only did two beach launches on the trip.

Me holding up my bergy bit!

Look at my game face.

Someone caught me taking a selfie with the bergy bit!

I love this photo because we hit rough patch of water around the shore and had to learn how to back paddle into waves with the kayaks perpendicular to the waves to avoid rolling.  We thought it was a blast but our guides were clearly concerned!

Oh hey there seal!

A rather large marine mammal rolling up...

Towing the kayaks to launch after our visit to Neko Harbor.

Oh, no big deal, just an enormous whale.

A whale resting on the surface next to us.

Whale tail!

Peter & Jane paddling near an enormous ice wall.

The Penguins of Hannah Point

Gentoo penguins in a bowing ritual.

This was one of my favorite penguins- look how shiny and clean he is!  This photo was taken with my GoPro as a much larger still- the quality of photos from GoPro was really surprising as I was able to crop and zoom in quite a bit without loosing any definition.

A closeup up the marching gentoo penguins.

I was crouching behind some rocks on the beach to take some better photos of the marching penguins.

Two penguins guarding their nest that was meticulously built with rocks and some twigs.

I took some GoPro footage of the penguins at Hannah Point.  Here a a couple of my favorites.

In the clip above, penguins are building their nests out of rocks.  Penguins are unfortunately not that bright.  They often steal rocks from other penguin nests- but while they're out collecting (or stealing rocks) they are also becoming victims of theft.  If you stand and watch long enough, you can see one rock stolen and passed around in a circle- essentially whichever penguin is closes to the external rocks is doing all the work while the rest just steal and pass around the same rocks unknowingly.

This is a clip of some penguins marching along the black sand beach.  We were hiking on the lower part of a mountain while this was filmed.  

A Gentoo (right) and several Chinstrap penguins (left).

A thirsty Chinstrap penguin eating some snow for hydration.

Quiet early morning skies at Goudier Island

The sky was so blue and the cloud formations changed so quickly.  I captured a few photos in the early morning before our kayaking excursion at Goudier Island.

The snow on the mountains appear so perfectly white in this lighting.

In a matter of moments the light would change and completely change the way the landscape looked.

This was taken within a half hour of the photos above and shows the sun peaking through the clouds.

Another shot showing the sun and it's reflection on the water.  This was early morning but felt like it also could have been dusk.

The story of the Skua & the GoPro

The subject of my first real post from Antarctica is (drum roll…) BIRDS! I'm as shocked as you are given my previous lack of interest in the avian species.  Of all the wildlife in Antarctica birds were not high on my list of interest prior to the trip.  I'll get into more detail, but I was shocked to find some of the antarctic birds to be among the most beautiful creatures.  My favorite bird to look at was the Snow Petrol and the most interesting bird to watch glide about was the albatross.  This, however, is a story of another bird; a more aggressive and daring creature with a wingspan and beak to match its personality.     Admittedly I did not always pay attention in bird class (yes, bird class on the ship), but I will certainly never forget this character.

 It was a beautiful and quite warm (for Antarctica in March) afternoon at Hannah Point.  We arrived to find beautiful mountains, nesting penguins including a few surprise Macaroni Penguins (quite rare for the time/location), and a few types of seals.  As I approached the trail to begin my hike along a bluff overlooking a beautiful black sand beach, I stumbled upon two large brown birds. Meet the "Brown Skua" or stercorarius antarcticus as its known to serious birders.  They were quite close so I stopped and sat on the snowy ground to take a few pictures and some GoPro footage.

The Brown Skua I encountered on our last excursion as it walks briskly towards me without fear. 

The second Brown Skua after successfully knocking over my GoPro placed in the snow to record the birds as I backed away.  I'm not going to lie - I backed away partly to observe the IAATO rules but mostly out of terror.  These birds easily stand over a foot tall and have sharp beaks and no fear.

The second Brown Skua taking hold of my GoPro camera as it prepared to make a run for it.  I am now the proud owner of a GoPro with a beak puncture in the floaty back door.  (The orange part is called a floaty back door and is basically like a life jacket for the camera.)

As the birds pecked at the camera I thought to myself, there's no way I can lose a second camera on this trip (story to follow) but I was limited in how I could approach the situation.  In short, the animals can touch you but you can't touch the animals.  I tried standing up to see if my increased size and flashy red gear would deter the giant birds.  No luck.  I watched, helpless, as the second bird took hold of my GoPro and began to walk away.  I thought, I could follow them or flail my arms in desperation, but wondered if my actions might encourage the bird-beast to take flight.  So…I talked to the birds and pleaded with them and when the bird finally he lost his grip and dropped it.  I swooped in to recover the camera and thankfully did not sustain any beak-stabbing injuries. Since the GoPro was rolling the whole time, I captured the act on film.  Here is the shortened version we used in slideshow at the end of the trip.  I'll post the full version (53 seconds long) later.

Marine Mammals in Antarctica March 16-26: Map & Video Slideshow

I'm still sorting through the photos, videos and journal entries I kept during my amazing trip.  I am hoping to start writing some more interesting posts later today and throughout the week.  I'd rather take my time writing about particular experiences instead of just uploading thousands of images.  Below is a map charting our stops by name longitude/latitude.

Map showing our stops each day.  There were typically two excursions each day- one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  We would spend most early afternoons and most nights traveling between locations. 

In the interim I wanted to share another video created by OneOcean that includes some of the trip highlights.  I have to warn ahead of time that this video includes very graphic footage of a leopard seal catching and killing a penguin.  While this is entirely part of nature, it might be difficult to watch for some so just skip ahead of that's the case.  Thanks and I hope you enjoy!