I'd say that the first day back at sea wasn't so bad... As the forecast predicted. I spent the day engrossed in lectures, trying to squeeze in just a little more info, history and awareness of Antarctica. There was always something new to learn and the crew who specialized in areas were so enthusiastic about their topics.
Just when you thought plankton or krill couldn't be interesting - you found out otherwise. These building blocks to the entire food chain had me captivated. All that I thought I understood was actually a tiny part of the story and I was happy to expand my brain a little.
Our crew mixed it up with games such as "how big is it?" where you may or may not learn something new about the natural world but definitely learned something new about the crew!
In this particular game, we were in teams. Each team had a peg and when the question was asked, your team put a peg on the rope that was tethered across the room, with your guess on the length. Now sometimes it was "how big is the dorsal fin on an orca?" Other times, you had to guess the height of a ... Rune! (Our Norwegian Viking photographer.) Chaos ensued but hilarity hit its peak when points were awarded to teams coming in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Arbitrary is an understatement. 1st place could get all of 17 points and 2nd place might be given 675.... A lot depended on what you asked for, if you were a first time winner and what (if anything) was going through the mind of the game host right then and there.
Then there was the charity auction. Donated items ranging from an "Antarctic $5 coin" to original art, souvenirs and THE flag that had flown on the Ocean Endeavor during our voyage. Scattered around the room were crew dressed in penguin outfits known as "champenguins", who were tasked with refilling the Champaign flutes of anyone who bidded. Yep... bidded, not won. It was a riot. Champaign was unashamedly being used to lubricate the bidding arm of anyone who looked like a reasonable bet. Our auctioneer was comical, fabricated details at will and was clearly unqualified. I laughed 'til I cried! In the end more than $11,000 was raised for the World Wildlife Fund. Success!
On top of that, I had photography meetings. I loved my photography group. Like-minded people who were happy to share and learn from each other, very supportive and encouraging too. Our "classes" covered topics like shutter speed and aperture partnership and composition (framing, reflection, contributing fore or background, disorder in order, silhouette, linear perspective, decisive moment, selective focus, panning, rule of thirds and color in a monochromatic scene). Each day we had been asked to lend some attention to one or two of these compositional focuses.
One of my favorite sessions featured a discussion about the word sublime; its meaning and how it could well be the word to describe Antarctica. A place that does exceed the limits of one's capacity to comprehend, describe and interpret. For me Antarctica was a bit on the transcendental side. I experienced it in a different way than a lot of my other travel.
There's a moment when you realize you are but a tiny part of the immense universe. Where your actions are barely causing a ripple in the grand scheme of things and become almost overwhelmed with a feeling of anonymity. I remember the first time I felt it and every time since. It IS sublime. I actually enjoy this feeling and love the freedom it offers my mind. It's dizzying - in an untethered way.
Ok, so there was another part of this particular class that was also one of the more deep and meaningful take-aways for me. Rune presented a slide show of some of his favorite images - art.
Let me preface this paragraph by saying all around the ship, hung large photo images taken by a professional. Landscapes of great beauty and isolation. Wildlife that stared into the camera with whiskers sharp and eyes sparkling. Mark and I had been talking one night as we ate dinner under one such piece. I described it (and all of them) as technically great but not very interesting to me, personally.
You can imagine my delight when Rune began his presentation stating that sometimes a picture can be made with focus, lighting and composition all catawampus (my words not his) and still be interesting... or more interesting because of it. It can tell a story, ask a question or just plain captivate you. YES!
We went on to visit some such art and I enjoyed having my eyes opened to all things that I was yet unfamiliar with. This "outside the box" enjoyment of something technically incorrect but compelling, was also freeing for me. His final message was for us to "find the human in the wildlife and find the animal in the human" when taking pictures. Love it!
As for me...
- I love the wildlife in Antarctica. Finding the quirky faces and awkward postures, weird relationships across species etc is what makes it most interesting for me.
- When it comes to landscapes I tend toward contrast, shadow, reflection and pops of color rather than scale and perfect composition.
- And as you will have noticed... I loved, loved, loved icebergs and bergy-bits. No good explanation I can honestly give except that every one is different, captures the light differently and has a different story. Maybe 10,000 years of coming to be, right here and now. And tomorrow, it will be somewhere else, a different shape, perhaps rolled over already and for sure will never be captured by anyone else the same way that I capture it right now. I knew penguins floated my boat before I got here... but the bergy-bits and the emotional energy that I found in them, were quite a surprise.
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