After icebergs we returned to the fjords in the north of Spitsbergen island. I woke up early, as usual, and went up on deck to see what there was to see. I could see land in the distance, but on the other side of the boat the sun was shining bright and there were seabirds flying about. So I tried to take some artsy seabird photos against the ocean. My favorite is the silhouette of a skua (I guess) returning from a fishing expedition taken against the bright morning sky. I also got a few photos of birds against the shimmering waves. I think these photos capture the peaceful mood of the morning.

There was a landing and hike planned for the morning but there was a polar bear sleeping amidst the rocks on shore so it turned into a zodiac cruise to see some glaciers. I got a few photos of the polar bear but it was just a pile of white fur amid the grey rocks. This fjord in the north of Northwest Spitsbergen National Park had a lot of jagged peaks and glaciers calving ice into the sea. So we cruised from one icy cove to another.

I had trouble knowing what to plan for as far as camera gear. It is difficult to change lenses in the zodiac so I liked to have it all set up before hand. On this outing I had the longer 100-400mm lens mounted to my main (full-frame) camera and a wider zoom attached to my back-up crop sensor camera. It turned out that I wanted to shoot low and wide with all the ice floating in the water, so a lot of these photos are from my smaller, lighter Z50 crop sensor camera that I use for hiking. I can tell that the picture quality is not quite as good as with the full-frame Z7ii that I would normally use, but I think these photos are OK. My favorite is the photo below with the birds.

The image below is actually a panorama stitched from four vertical photos shot with the longer lens. I really wanted to capture the curvy lines of the ice flow. From the distance we were in the boat, my only good option was a quick handheld series of shots for a pano. Thankfully the water was calm and it stitched well.

I remember this being one of the colder boat rides of the trip, but it wasn’t so bad. I brought some thick winter pants for this trip and never put them on once. I don’t think it ever got more than 2 or 3 degrees below freezing and as long as I kept my head and hands warm, I was fine. I was also wearing waterproof pants and jacket, which kept the wind at bay.

In the afternoon we did get to go ashore for a hike farther up the fjord where there were no bears. I chose the long hike so I’d get to see more, but this meant that there wasn’t much stopping for photography. We hiked up a rocky hill, enjoyed the view for 5 minutes or so, and then stumbled back down (I was wearing rubber boots). The rocks were often coated with bright orange lichens. I suppose wherever you go on earth, you’ll find something that can live there.

Another group stayed behind on the shore and did a beach clean up. It was amazing to see the sorts of stuff they found on the shore in this place where nobody lives and people seldom visit. Garbage can be washed into rivers and out to sea where it can float the ocean currents eventually ending up on a beach thousands of miles away. There’s no escaping it.

This was getting toward the end of my expedition and there would be only one more day with a chance to see puffins. I’ll talk about that in my next blog post.