In the Arctic there is a bird that looks like it face-planted in a clown’s make-up kit. People love to see this bird and when I was on my expedition there was quite the talk about whether or not we would find them. It turns out that on our rainy last afternoon we did finally… Read More A Puffin Piece
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… Read More A Return to the Fjords
After leaving Kvitoya, we sailed all “night” to find the sea ice and I woke up a little after 5:00AM and wandered up on deck to see if we had found the ice. We had indeed found lots of ice and there was even some sunlight making its way through the fog on the east… Read More 81° 43’ 29” North
The eastern most island in Svalbard is Kvitøya, or the White Island. There has never been a settlement there and the island is generally left to the polar bears and annoying tourists these days, but the island does play a key part in a notable historical event that began in the late 19th century in… Read More A Passage to Kvitøya, the White Island
In addition to polar bears, another large mammal that is common to Svalbard is the walrus. I saw walruses multiple times on my trip, but the most significant time was when we took a zodiac ride close to the shore of a small island where a large herd was hanging out. This was a mornings… Read More Walrus
On my Svalbard expedition, we did multiple excursions to see one of the main features of the landscape: ice. Ice in the form of icebergs and glaciers. And after the morning of being harassed by birds, we loaded up into the zodiacs and headed for the ice to look around. I don’t get to shoot… Read More Ice, Ice, and More Ice
On the NorthEast side of the island of Spitsbergen at a place called Alkefjellet, there are high cliffs and ledges used by birds to breed and raise chicks in the summer months. The main bird on the cliff was the Brünnich’s Guillemot and there were tens of thousands of them on the cliffs, in the… Read More The Bird Cliffs of Alkefjellet
I saw polar bears on my trip to Svalbard. I saw a lot of polar bears. The archipelago crawls with polar bears. I am not an experienced wildlife photographer and my camera is not considered an excellent wildlife photography camera, but I will tell you about my experience and what I tried. First, I want… Read More Polar Bears!
On the second day of my Svalbard expedition, the ship sailed around the southern end of Spitsbergen Island and we had an opportunity for an excursion ashore for a hike. This also means that no polar bears were spotted or else they would never have let us go on shore. But I didn’t mind because… Read More Beautiful Gloominess
In Longyearbyen I boarded a ship that would sail around Svalbard and into the Arctic Ocean over the course of ten days. The ship was designed around expeditions for adventure tourism, I guess you might say. There are cabins as you might expect, as well as a dining room, lecture theater, a couple of bars… Read More Fjords and Icebergs
Jason Frels 