Julio’s voice whispers in my ear, “The time is 7AM….”, my brain sputters to life and awakens slowly as Julio continues – his whisper now turns louder as my brain engages on his words and my eyes flutter open and try to focus. I look around my cabin slightly disoriented trying to remember where I am. Then my mind puts together the puzzle as Julio continues to speak to me – and a smile slowly forms across my face. It’s a smile of contentment and satisfaction as I remember that I am in the most beautiful place on this earth – Antarctica.
“It is Monday December 17th. The temperature is 2 degrees outside, the winds are 11 knots and the skies are cloudy. We are currently anchored at Danco Island. Good morning.” Julio says.
It is day 6 onboard the MS Expedition and this is my morning ritual. Julio Preller, the expedition leader wakes me up over the ship intercom system and my dad and I slowly come to life. Each morning I have the exciting revelation that I am still in Antarctica and no matter how little sleep I had thanks to the midnight sun – I start my morning excited, happy, and thankful to be here – sharing this moment with my father.
“Mother Nature is in charge.” Julio said during his first welcome aboard presentation when we were disembarking Ushuaia. When cruising the Antarctic you really don’t know what each day will hold and weather can dictate the route and schedule – but so far we have been very lucky. We had had had a dose of everything – sun, blue skies, snow, poor visibility, and wind.
But from a photography standpoint the changing weather is like your muse, it provides inspiration and creativity in composition. The weather changes brought on a variety of cloud formations, which appeared like paint strokes on my landscape canvas adding depth and texture.
I collected a few of my favorite landscape shots highlighting the weather patterns and cloudscapes that Antarctica presents to the lucky visitor.
Disclosure: ExpeditionTrips is hosting my Antarctic Peninsula Cruise. However, all of the opinions expressed here are my own – as you know how I love to speak my mind!
Sherry Ott is a refugee from corporate IT who is now a long term traveler, blogger, and photographer. She’s a co-founder of Briefcasetobackpack.com, a website offering career break travel inspiration and advice.
Additionally, she runs an around the world travel blog writing about her travel and expat adventures at Ottsworld.com.com.
