Sealsandcamera

Alek O. Komarnitsky says

My wife works at an Adventure Travel company, and due to a very fortunate set of circumstances (plus her encouragement and willingness to watch the kids), I was able to go on a 19-day expedition voyage to the Falklands, South Georgia, and Antarctica.

The amazing wildlife and spectacular scenery provides a "target rich environment" that is a photographer's ultimate fantasy.

In addition to that summary page, there are sub-pages for each day with pictures of (literally) millions of penguins and other wildlife, more icebergs than you can imagine, a Google Map of our voyage, and more.

I was incredibly lucky to be able to do this phenomenal experience and am back to being a boring middle-aged suburban Dad, making school lunches for the kids, playing baseball with 'em, etc. 

Photos from trip to Falklands & South Georgia Islands and Antarctica

Previously:

  • seyo

    I really wish I could see the picture snapped by that camera at the base of the tripod. I bet it’s hilariously cute. Or cutely hilarious. Both probably. Fish eye photos of animals’ snouts are amazing. LOL!

  • seyo

    HAHA! They do have that pic! If you rollover some of the images on the linked site, you can see alternates, including some snouts. Awesome :)

  • alek

    Seyo: Here’s an image of what the baby fur seal (also called “Dinky Toys”) looks like from that camera – a complete sequence can be found here.

    Yes, he not only slobbered all over the lens (fortunately, I had put a filter on just in case this happened), but started to nibble on the camera lens – D’OH! ;-)

    I like the remote controlled camera tripod pictures of the Penguins better (I even got in a couple as seen here and here) but yes, the baby fur seals were pretty darn cute.

    Glad you enjoyed the pictures.

  • Talia

    These photos are amazing. I am insanely jealous.

  • forgeweld

    Thanks for the pics, even the difficult to view skua attack. Sometimes cuteness must be sacrificed to the natural order.

    It always amazed me that the British fought a war over the frosty Falkland/Malvinas, and then happily gave away the incredibly valuable city state of Hong Kong.

  • riotgirl007

    Alek,

    We really saved up for the Antarctica trip but it was worth it. More than the boat it was the expertise of the naturalists on board that was so awesome. And because we booked before the crash we had money saved and the boat was not that full so we had a more intimate experience.

  • Beverly Stayart

    Beautiful photos of wildlife. A wonderful trip.

  • Johnny Cat

    This is officially on my Bucket List. DO WANT!

  • surreality

    Wow! These are incredible and adorable. I had no idea that that many different animals would all be friendly and curious towards humans!

  • morkus

    That would be the “Malvinas” islands.

  • TJ S

    Wonderful pictures. This made my day.

  • Anonymous

    SPECTACULAR! Thanks for sharing.

  • riotgirl007

    We also went on an amazing journey to Antartica and Falklands Island in December/January. It was a profound experience.
    Check out the amazing photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/devildotbunny/collections/72157612787183904/
    And the blog of the adventure here: http://www.voyagevixen.blogspot.com/

  • Blenda

    You mean Malvinas Islands.

    It´s an total absurd the history of this island. It´s even worse that an island a few kilometers from Argentina belongs to UK, result of a bloody war in the 20th century.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t understand why people justify colonialism.
    Incredible. The islands belongs to Argentina. Obviously the invasion in 1982 by Argentina (leaded by a drunken dictator) was a BIG mistake and the response made by the “iron woman” was terrorific.
    Why England should be the owner of a couple of islands 10.000 km from his country?

  • Anonymous

    You are an amazing photographer. Thanks for letting me share your adventure. I love the video of them jumping the cold ass water. hahaha

    I need to make this trip

  • Simon Bradshaw

    Morkus @7: Only if you are prepared to ignore the local population, who (having been there myself) I can confirm have pretty strong views on the issue of whether they are living in the ‘Falklands’ or the ‘Malvinas’.

  • Anonymous

    Alek, Thank you for taking me on a close-up and intimate trip that I would otherwise never get to enjoy. You’re a kind man and a great photographer. Thank you, tinwheeler

  • Eddie B

    We returned on Ocean Nova Jan 23. We may have crossed paths walking around Ushuaia that morning.

    Here is a link to my photos from the trip
    http://efbacon.jalbum.net/EdBaconAlbums/Antarctic/index.html

    I also put together a book on Blurb.com
    http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/657388

  • alek

    Eddie,

    Yep – you were on the trip right before me – good thing neither of us were on the trip after when the Ocean Nova ran aground.

    You have some outstanding pictures – great iceberg shots. I imagine it was fun being on the Luminous trip as the Quark Staff mentioned you guys had almost a million dollars of photo gear onboard! ;-)

  • missamo80

    Ed, fancy meeting you here :) Here’s my very small subset of photos from the same trip Ed was on in January.

    http://www.danecreekphotography.com/Portfolio/Antarctica-2009/8638388_8uPfD#569972999_iABX3

    I love how you and I have almost identical pictures of the piece of snow that’s on the bottom of page 19 of your book.

    My Blurb book is at http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/628242.

    Neil

  • Ministry

    No, Blenda (#22), Alek means the Falkland Islands, not the Islas Malvinas. As mentioned earlier in the thread, the (human) natives strongly consider themselves to be Falklanders; indeed, as Wikipedia says “many Spanish names [are] considered offensive in the Falkland Islands”

    And not that it’s particularly important in this context, the Falklands are ~500 km from the S.American mainland (not exactly “a few”) and were claimed by the UK (rightly or not) in 1833, not the 20th Century.

    Anyway: stunning photos – thanks!

  • morkus

    If someone squatted in your house while you were on your photo-taking vacation, I’m sure that person would indeed have “strong views” on whether it was “their property” or “your property.” Pretending that it is relativistic (stating that the islands were claimed “rightly or not”) is ignorant of the common sense truth of the matter. It’s clear that an island a few hundred miles off of the Argentine coast belong rightly to Argentina (who had the earlier claim) than to England, over 9000 miles away.

    Furthermore, the English version of Wikipedia is going to be inherently biased towards the history of the Islas Malvinas, since it is nearly. For example, note the consistent use of the word “invade” when describing Argentina’s attempts to reclaim its own territory. The Spanish article paints a very different picture of both the history of the claims of the islands and the war itself.

  • alek

    RIOTGIRL007: Great blog and pictures. Your ship was in dock and here are some pictures I took of the National Geographic Explorer – very high end ship – you travel in style! ;-)

    I assume you got off the morning of Jan 23rd and we boarded the Ocean Nova (docked across the way) that evening.

  • Takuan

    quite, quite magnificent.

  • pauly99

    Gorgeous pictures. The wildlife must have been a sight to be seen.

  • optuser

    Alek : thanks for sharing your pictures. The first one of you coming ashore seems like a good candidate for a novelty postcard or greeting card.

    “Damn tourists. Let’s get out of here.” The penguin on the left looks particularly offended.

  • Yamara

    See? You ignore global warming, and the next thing you know the native species in Antarctica start summoning Shai’Hulud.

  • Sean Blueart

    Mark, thank you for this, Beautiful!