SYLVIA PATTON - 2019 - 2021 - CALENDAR EXTRAS

HAPPY NEW YEAR!     Rapa Nui (Easter Island)  is a true faraway destination. It is the most western of the Polynesian Islands and lies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is over 2300 miles off the coast of Chile, to which it belongs, and 2500 miles from Tahiti. The nearest inhabited island is Pitcairn Island, (population 50) 1289 miles away. While its claim to fame is the over 900 carved statues, called moai, my amazement is how Polynesians, around 500 AD, found the place at all! It's only 64 square miles in size!      I rented a car and just drove around the island, listening to the radio, stopping and staying at the archeological sites as I pleased. It was sort of like Hawaii, but not quite. The music was sort of Polynesian, but not quite. There were a few tourists, but not many. It was as I imagine Hawaii was 75 years ago.      The photo above is of two sites in the Rapa Nui National Park, which is also a UNESCO World Heritag...

        We saw a number of polar bears on this trip. This one was on a large ice floe, and we watched it for quite a while as it wandered around peering over the edges of the floe. Finally it dove in and swam off to check out a floating oil barrel. No lunch here!         Check out where his/her eyes are!          What the ......?      One giant leap . . .             Just made it!         Ciao!    See you next year!

     I captured this image on a foggy day, floating in a zodiac on totally flat water. As you know by now, I love the abstract shapes of icebergs, and can look at them interminably.  I always see a vertebra when I look at this, what do you see?      You may recognize it, but not remember where you saw it.  You saw it in July's blog, as an "also ran" for the month of July! If you refer back to that post you will see other "also ran" images, and a fuller description of that wonderful place.  I encourage you to go back to July's post and have another look!      I have just returned from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and Patagonia. It was a wonderful adventure,  and I hope to share some images from it with you.  Rick and I are now working on  next year's calendar, as I write this.  Here's a teaser for what's to come! Add caption See you next month!

                                             FRAM FJORD - ELLESMERE ISLAND Moving through the fjords via zodiac is a wonderful experience. Mountains on either side, and often in front also.  Mesmerizing colors and shapes of icebergs float by, changing as they do so. Doesn't get much better than that for me. I love the colors and shapes, the intricate designs, the wind in your face. This blog will be a short one, as it is the eve of another adventure for me. Tomorrow I begin a journey as far south as I was north at this time last year. I'm going to Patagonia! Starting at Santiago Chile and going all around the Horn to Ushuaia, Argentina, then finishing in Buenos Aires! If you want to know how I'm going, just check out the photo from this Arctic trip! Not only am I going on the same ship, but I will also have the same room! And I will probably spend a lot of ...

SEPTEMBER Just a year ago today, September 1, 2018 we left our furthest northern point and started south along the western Greenland coast. A couple of days later we explored Meville Bay. A beautiful sunny day zodiacing among icebergs all beautifully sculpted by wind and water. What a sight! The hard part was selecting which one of thousands of possible images to represent this experience. Below are some shots from that day :-)) Up close and personal with the ice! There's another one! From whence all those 'bergs came! Here's to the workers of the world on Labor Day, 2019!! See you next month :-))

FRAM FJORD - ELLESMERE ISLAND One of the wonderful things about doing a Lindblad - Nat. Geo Expedition is that you get taken to extraordinary places. You are in the middle of a stunning physical environment with virtually no one else around. Heaven. However, as a photographer, it can be frustrating. Here you are in a tantalizingly  photogenic location: the water is calm, with gorgeous reflections, and, if you could just wait a bit, maybe an hour, maybe two or three, or even come back at sunset, you have a chance at glorious light.  But you are on a schedule, you are lucky to even be here, and it's not raining! How dare you wish for more! But you do, or rather I did. This fjord was full of icebergs and reflections of jagged brown mountains, - and it was in shadow. No waiting around though. We had to head back into Baffin Bay, turn North,  and see how far we could go. We were trying for 80° North, and we had to get a move on! Ellesmere Island is at the top left ...

     Sometimes less is more; sometimes the greatness of space is felt because there is so little in it. On this afternoon we were out on the zodiacs in the middle of a wide open sea. Small bergs would appear and disappear in the fog, as the clouds played with the sun.       Below are a couple of the other images that competed for center stage from the same area. Fulmars, our forever, feathered, following friends.     A few hours earlier, we had come across a lone seal floating in the middle of nowhere, quite content. S/he deserved a portrait.     And then, a bit later,  off to the right were muskoxen! Unfortunately, that's as close as I got. While you can't see their smirks, you can see their home. Their portraits are for another time. You can google them to see what they look like :-)) Muskoxen, at home on the range. And, now for something different: Spoiler alert! I am planning a trip to Pat...