This morning we awoke to cold air temperatures, two inches of snow on the deck, heavy overcast skies, and some areas of fog. The ship was heading into the Lemaire Channel, a narrow passage between the Argentine Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula mainland. The temperatures here were at freezing, and the amount of ice floating in the channel was surprising compared to what we had witnessed so far. 

Small icebergs, bergy bits (smaller than 5 meters in height) and brash ice (small pieces floating together) littered the passage and the ship just pushed them away; smaller pieces of ice rafted together in the currents and created patterns.  Even with the dark grey skies, the blue ice of the icebergs was surprisingly vivid. At the end of the Lemaire Channel there were many large icebergs in the distance.

The morning stop was Peterman Island, inhabited by colonies of Adelie and Gentoo penguins as well as a small colony of Antarctic shags. The snow here had large areas of greenish or reddish snow; the color due to algae that grows in areas of permanent snow. The landing on a rock shelf was easy, and paths led to Gentoo penguin colonies to the right and left, with the Adelie colony further up the hill on the right.  A path on the left led uphill to an overview of a small inlet that had an accumulation of grounded icebergs or various shapes.

The afternoon stop was six miles further South at Vernadsky Station, a Ukrainian research base.  While waiting for our arrival time at the station, we spent time exploring the nearby waters which were filled with icebergs of every shape imaginable. These large icebergs were carved by currents, flipped over as the center of mass changed, and carved again. We never witnessed a large iceberg turn over, but it was easy to imagine how impressive it would be.

The station was originally established at this site on Galindez Island, part of the Argentine Islands chain, as a British facility in 1954 and was sold to the government of Ukraine in 1996 for one pound.  The UK had no further need of the station, and the cost of dismantling the base due to Antarctic agreements would be costly.  Scientists from Ukraine lost access to Antarctic research facilities with the dissolution of the USSR, so it was a win-win situation. The Ukrainian Antarctic Center conducts projects in geomagnetism, seismology, upper atmospheric physics, meteorology, biology, and physiology research. Expanded to house 24 people, and operates the world’s most southern gift shop and public bar serving homemade vodka. One of the scientists conducted a tour of the facility which ended at the gift shop and bar, where we sampled the vodka.

After our visit here, we returned to the ship and started our two-day journey across the Drake Passage.  It started off with high seas; I spent most of the time the first day in bed, which was not a loss since the fog was fairly thick and the horizon could not be seen until two days later when we approached the Beagle Channel.

In early February, we had a pair of bluebirds come to our feeders. Bluebirds generally eat insects and there are not many around this time of year. They watched the other birds eating and gave it a try. It was amusing to watch a bluebird pick up a piece of bread and try to get it past its beak. One beat it against a branch until it was long and round then ate it. Over the next several weeks the number of bluebirds grew to four pairs. They would only visit on days that were cold; up to five of them on the suet feeder at a time. In the past, such visits by bluebirds in the winter were brief, only a day or two. This year they visited for more than four weeks. All the images in this post were captured in February 2023, with the exception of the two images of Robins which were made in December 2022.

My initial photographs were through the kitchen and lavette windows with the target areas being the bird feeders and birdbath. Once it was clear that they would be staying a while, I set up two light stands with natural perches attached to them with plastic straps. To increase my chances of getting the birds to use the perches, I strategically placed them between one of their favorite spots and another. One perch is between the bird bath and the suet feeder, and the other is between the suet and the tray feeder.  At some times of the day there could be 20-30 birds visiting the feeders and the perches provide some convenient places to wait for a spot on a  feeder to open.

I choose the perches to have a vertical and horizontal branch to provide variety. If you intend to photograph  over many days, it makes sense to change the perches every so often and even change the position so that you have an assortment of images with a variety of branches and backgrounds.

The perches are about ten feet from the windows and placed to have a distant background. All the photographs in this post are captured with a handheld Olympus O-MD E-M1 Mark III camera body with the Olympus M.Zuiko 300mm f/4 PRO lens, mostly at f/4 and shutter speeds as slow as 1/15 sec. Because of the small sensor size of the Olympus camera, the 300mm lens has a field of view equivalent to a 600mm lens on a camera with a full size sensor. I photographed through the double pane window glass; although it did take some experimentation to discover which window sections offered good results. When the weather is warmer, I will also shoot with the lavette window open, ensuring that the door is closed should a bird investigate the open cavity.

When photographing through a window it is important to be aware of two optical effects: distortion through the glass and reflections on the glass. Check for distortion by shooting through various parts of the window at a bird feeder or the perch and review the images with magnification to ensure detail is preserved. Reflections will most likely be caused by brightly lit objects in the room or from the windows across the room. By positioning the camera lens perpendicular to the glass you may solve both problems as I have found less distortion when shooting straight through the glass. Getting close to the glass also blocks reflections. If you have storm windows, you may want to open the lower section to reduce the amount of glass between your camera and the subject.

Photographing birds from a window in your house can very productive, and especially so in winter when the birds’ need to eat is necessary for their survival. They are acclimated to people being the window watching as they visit the feeders and ignore anyone standing there for the most part.

Make your plans now to take advantage of the springtime migration bringing new birds to backyard feeders, all hungry as they need the energy to build new feathers and to fly on to their summer areas.

I was walking around in my yard which I left mostly wooded, and found a newly emergent pine tree with the seed pod still attached to the end of the pine needles. I set up and was rewarded with a nicely backlit pine tree, but with half the background in bright sun.  What to do! I knew I would try to use Highlights and Shadows controls to brighten the shady area and knock back the bright area, as can be seen in the second photo. It is an acceptable result, but if I were done taking photographs, this post would be over also.

While maximizing the highlight and shadow adjustments of Lightroom results in an acceptable image, I know that I can do better, or at least different. And I better do it while I have a cooperative subject.

My approach here is to provide shade for the entire scene by placing my body between the sun and the subject. To accomplish this I need a couple of tools that I happen to carry with me whenever looking for small objects to photograph. First, the camera is placed on a stable platform such as a tripod or the Platypod if I’m getting very low to the ground, to keep the camera framed properly. Second, I control the camera using a remote control to trigger the capture. Although this can be a wired remote I prefer using a wireless remote because of the flexibility it provides. I’m no longer limited by the length of the cord plus the length of my arm. And third, I take advantage of the articulating screen on my camera body to be able to observe the scene I have framed in my camera, while I am maneuvering my body to block the sun. This ensures I properly position myself for the desired results.

By watching the monitor that I have flipped around to be facing me as I block the sun, I am able trigger the capture with the wireless remote when I am certain I am in the correct position. In the second image above, you can see the pine tree seedling in the green circle, the receiver of the wireless remote is on the ground to the right of the camera. To the left of the camera is a Litra Torch LED light on a Platypod Ultra, spigot adapter and small ball head. Before turning on the light, I made a few captures for comparison. The resulting image (below, left) has a nice even light to it, But the upper right quarter seems a little brighter than the rest of the scene. I feel my eye is being pulled from the seeding and to the upper right, but there is nothing significant there.

I dropped the overall exposure by about 2/3 stop and used the LED light to help separate the seedling from the dark background. It also brought out the texture of the seed and in the stem.

I used my body as a sun block and a remote control to trigger the capture in these two examples. For the Spotted Wintergreen I stood to the left of the plant while making the exposure.

For the red fungus growing on the side of the tree stump, the offending sunlit spot is to the far right of the subject. I set up the camera with the screen flipped around so that I could see it, stood behind the stump and held my hat in the path of the sunlight so that I cast a shadow in the correct location. In this case I also added a Litra Torch to the left side of the stump to light the underparts of the fungus.