One of my goals for my month-long trip to Antarctica, was to capture images of birds in flight. Most Antarctic birds (albatross, skua, pintado, and so on) spend a lot of time soaring over the water, far from land. They catch air currents to glide upon. As the bird gets close to the water, they seem to catch an uplift and soar high into the sky.
The challenge to photographing them is to be able to actively track their movement while standing on a moving ship or sitting in a moving Zodiac. The Zodiac is a bigger challenge because it is more prone to the action of the waves. Further, the other passengers move heads and limbs that often get in the way.
For this trip, I used a very good prosumer camera (i.e., Zoom lens that can't be removed) and very fast shutter speed settings and burst mode settings. I tossed out many more images than I took, but that's the nature of bird photography from a boat. Double-click (or double tap) this image to see the slideshow in the proper aspect ratio. Enjoy!
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