Elysium…Heaven on Earth…The Antarctic

This time last year I was in South America on my way to The Antarctic.

I can’t believe nearly a year has past since my trip of a lifetime..

I think about The Antarctic everyday…

The vivid blue colour of the ice, the wildlife and the beautiful feeling of visiting such a remote, isolated part of our planet.

My exhibition, Frozen Lenses was a huge success for me last year..dates will be released soon for venues in 2014

These are some of my favourite pics…

If you have any questions or comments about these photos, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Click on the first pic to view all the pics as a slideshow.

Chris 🙂

My favourite pics from 2013

I’ve had a fantastic year….

I turned 50, I realised a dream and went to the Antarctic, my clickwalklearn photography tours business has taken off (and hasn’t stopped) and I’ve had two really successful photography exhibitions.

I’ve taken LOTS of pics this year – I mean LOTS….

Thanks to everyone for all your support. I really enjoy your feedback and comments 🙂

Here are some of my favourites photos from 2013…

I hope each and everyone of you enjoy your new year celebrations and that 2014 brings you all you hope and dream for….

Follow your dreams…I do…..xxx

Don’t forget to click on the shots to enlarge them…

This is my absolute favourite shot from the Antarctic. We were in a zodiac right near Port Lockroy. This magnificent iceberg was backlit and begged to be photographed. It was exhibited as part of my exhibition ‘Frozen Lenses’ during the Head On Photo festival..I could look at it all day 🙂

This humpback whale was as huge as he looks in this pic…I look at this shot everyday (its hanging in my loungeroom) and marvel at the wonder of nature…

I watched this beautiful chinstrap penguin for a while….How majestic is he? I absolutely love this shot…another favourite 🙂

I bought myself a macro lens earlier this year and have LOVED it ever since!! This pic shows the detail you can get out of this lens. Everyone now go and buy a macro lens…you won’t be sorry 🙂

At Easter, we packed up with my family and went to Lake Eucumbene, down in the Snowy Mountains of NSW. It was a photographers paradise! Here are my favourite shots from this trip..I especially love the stars..

I’ve photographed so many babies this year…They were all beautiful and cuddly and gorgeous!! I love them all particularly this first one that really shows the love between Jodie and her beloved Jack….

This is Macey…She’s the daughter of very special friends of mine…isn’t she adorable?

How cute is Lachlan? A beautiful little boy..I love the expression on his face….

Benjamin is such a happy boy, he was SO tired after our photoshoot….how soft does he look here?

Here’s Emily. She was definitely the most photographic little girl with such a beautiful smile….

Mount Wilson is such a glorious town up in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. This garden was truly magnificent. It was really hard to choose my favourite shot, but the softness of the Wisteria and the blurred background makes this shot so easy on the eye….

I celebrated my 50th birthday in June. This is a shot of me, my hubby Ray and my two boys Ryan and Bryce….such a special family time..

Its such an icon in Sydney. The face of Luna Park…I’ve photographed it many times before. But I just love the angle and the colour of this one….

The gardens in the Blue Mountains are always spectacular in the spring and I loved visiting many homes during the ‘Garden Festival.’ I love the colour in this shot and the simplicity of the flower…

The moon….always a challenge to photograph…I spent lots of time with the camera to get this shot….You need a zoom lens, a tripod and lots of patience 🙂

Last, but not least, this is my favourite pic from 2013. It’s me…Alone in the Antarctic doing my favourite thing…I absolutely love it!!

Happy New Year everyone 🙂 🙂 🙂

Jagged Edge – a pic from the Antarctic

A couple of weekends ago i met a woman, Margret, who wanted to buy one of my images from my exhibition, Frozen Lenses.

Today I delivered that image to her and as well as having an early lunch with her and a glass of wine (at 11am) I learnt a lot about perception.

Without her knowing the name of the image, this is what she told me it meant to her.

“From the original grandiose shape I can see the beauty evolving and how years of living leaves characteristic marks. In the deterioration process the wild jagged edges look like the deep folds in an old persons face or body”

What a beautiful way to describe my image. She told me those words were a reflection of how she felt about herself. I can’t believe she used the words ‘jagged edge’ – that is what I named my image within minutes of shooting it.

I told her I had a completely different slant on it.

“I spotted this iceberg from far away, it looked wild, yet alone and incomplete. As we approached it I saw the beauty and imperfection in its shape. It totally reminded me of me – wild with jagged edges.

What are your thoughts on this image? I’d love to hear them. Please leave your comments below.

Enjoy my image – Jagged Edge.

Antarctica and that blue, blue ice

I’ve just returned from Antarctica. I saw many breathtaking scenes that I am still dreaming about.

But the real reason I went there was the icebergs. I’ve always been fascinated by them and they were initially what lured me to Antarctica.

Well I certainly got my dose of those. 100’s of them – large and small – they were all spectacular.

I particularly loved the larger ones – such tall, powerful structures that drift in the peaceful stillness of the waters of the 5th largest continent.

I couldn’t keep my eyes off them. Being down low in the zodiac, it felt very surreal, as if I was in another world and at one with the ice.

Its almost as if time has forgotten them.

Why are some of the icebergs blue? Well its really all about compression of the ice and the colour spectrum.

Icebergs come from glaciers, which are formed by continual ice and snow. Snowflakes (frozen water) form and then become cystalized. A snowflake is a multi faceted crystal and these facets reflect light. As snow accumulates on the glacier huge amounts of air is trapped.

The blue colour occurs in ice that is generally hundred’s to thousand’s of years old. Continual compression as the glacier moves and heads towards the sea plus the continual thawing and refreezing of the ice causes the air that was originally trapped by the falling snow to be expelled. The ability to reflect light (and therefore appear white ) only exists when there is air trapped between the snow crystals. This very old, very dense ice is no longer capable of reflecting light .

Light that now hits the iceberg no longer reflects off it, it is absorbed by it. The weaker wavelengths of light are quickly filtered out (red, orange, yellow, green.) The blue wavelength has enough energy to reflect from, or penetrate deep within the iceberg therefore giving it that gorgeous blue colour……

Cool huh? 🙂

These photos were taken at Cierva Cove, Antarctica. 64.16S 60.89W. Don’t forget to click on the photos to enlarge them…

Antarctica…Camping on Danco Island

The trip of a lifetime…Antarctica….

There are so many moods to this wonderful place and so much for me to write and tell you about…

First things first…Did I really spend the night camped on the ice?

Yes. I did. How grateful and blessed I am.

We had a wonderful night. This video was made at around 10.15pm whilst still light..

It doesn’t really get dark, it just looks like someone has dimmed the lights for a couple of hours.

The bay was absolutely beautiful. So peaceful and still.

I saw a calving (a piece of ice breaking away from a glacier) and watched the waters in the bay ripple towards me, then suck back before the larger waves came.

A mini tsunami they call it. I call it mother nature going wild.

I woke up in the night to see an Orca Whale cutting his fin through the quiet waters of the bay and the penguin colony behind us continued its chatter all through the night…

In the morning a Leopard seal was laying on the snow near us heading towards the bay. He was HUGE, seriously and I just sat there in awe of this beautiful creature.

It really doesn’t get any better than this….

Enjoy the video.

Chris x