Why ?

Why do we do it ?

Why do we take a painfully long flight trip to reach a country that is so far, to a climate that is the opposite of what you are comfortable with ?

Why do we spend ten days on a ship, which while being superbly suited for what we need, is no luxury ocean liner ?

Why do we willingly get into those cumbersome, yet warm, suits and get into an inflatable raft and go over those often choppy waves ?

While, arguably there is a certain madness about us wildlife photographers, in this case, it goes beyond that.

There’s something about the Arctic.

It touches your soul. It gently but definitively sucks you in. It makes you realize your insignificance. It makes you want to return, again and again. And again.

If you decide to brave the cold and step out onto the deck, you can easily spend hours looking at the rawness of the beauty around you.

There, a mountain peak serenely looks at you through the sifting clouds of mist.

There, sitting in a regal and solitary splendor, a big piece of ice sits contemptuously ignoring you.

You see the most brilliant hues of blue on the ice around you, the brilliance marred by the darkness of the walruses lazing on it.

You see the soft, snow covered slopes reach down to the sea in an elegant manner.

You see craggy, vertical cliffs standing tall against wind and current.

Occasionally, the skies join in the fun and you see the drama that light, clouds and shadows play.

And, if you see a polar bear in these places, you realize the vastness of the space around you, how it dwarfs even a fairly large creature that a polar bear is.

I struggle with landscape images, but I just felt that I need to try and give you a glimpse of what I saw from the deck.

That might also answer the question - Why...why I would love to return.

Below this peak, was the first glacier we saw in the trip. But it was the peak, standing taller than the clouds, catching the weak sunlight, that caught my eye

The patterns, the blunted peaks, the clouds...magical !

A sense of strength, stability, permanence, but in reality...

Breathtaking

The cliffs of Alkefjellet have a distinct aura about them

A solitary guillemot flies in front of the imposing cliffs

Intriguing abstract patterns that the stones and the ice conjure up

Occasionally, very occasionally, the skies turn dramatic

The ice. The rocks. And the reindeer.

The play of light, shadow and clouds.

Nothing shows the vastness of the place like the polar bear

Cheers !

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