When we traveled into the ice pack at 82.34 degrees last week we experienced a lot of polar bears. It is so hard to believe in the desolate environment there was so much life. Here’s a shot of one of the polar bears we encountered as it jumps from one ice berg to another. And, just to be clear this is ice pack ice that has broken up and is not an ice berg broken off of a glacier. These bears roam the ice pack hunting for seals. They jump, walk or swim to get where they need to go.
Sometimes you are at the right spot at the right time. This was one of those cases. A week ago while cruising around in front of a glacier we could see a lot of calving going on. This is when chucks of ice break off of a glacier and form icebergs. It sounds like thunder. It causes giant splashes and huge wave. The trick is predicting where it might happen and being ready. Luck was with me as I caught this giant calving at the right moment. The motor drive was purring at 5 frames a second. I love this shot as you can see the giant ice chucks breaking off as well as hundreds of birds that took flight when it happened. Click on the image and look at the large version. CLICK on the image to see larger version Click again to see even bigger.
What amazes me about both Polar regions is the amount of wildlife that lives there. In the Arctic we ran across walruses quite often. One of them even sunk one of our beached Zodiacs. These are animals that are giants. Best known for the tusks. This shot was a lucky one for me as I caught it right after it raised its head from the water. I love the water dripping off the tusks. Shot with A Nikon D7100 and 80-400 lens which turned out to be the ideal set up for this kind of shooting.