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Svalbard 2023 Expedition Recap
I didn’t have this website or blog when I visited Svalbard in June of 2023 so instead I just posted on FB. Here’s my attempt to gather and make sense of those posts in one place and to share some shots that have never been seen before
No more sleeps! The next time my head will hit the pillow it'll be in Svalbard!
So now it's time to get off FB and finish up the last minute packing and head to the airport. I'm told that there won't be any internet connectivity on board the ship so I likely won't post any pictures until I return in a couple of weeks.
But if you want to follow along as I cruise around Svalbard check out this site, it gives real time location of ships around the world. If it doesn't load I'll be on the the MV Polar Pioneer
CruiseMapper showing the Polar Pioneer docked in Longyearbyen
My happy place, the international terminal and waiting to board flight 1
About 14 hours later
“On the ground in Oslo, now to clear passport control and on to my next flight”
And after clearing immigration control and making it to my gate for flight 2
“It’s a very different crowd gathering at the gate for Longyearbyen. Hiking shoes, big packs and rugged looks”
And off to Longyearbyen, or so I thought. Turns out that since Svalbard is outside the Schengen area and is not included in the Schengen agreement, you need to land in Tromso to clear immigration.
On the ground in Tromso. You get off the plane with all your luggage enter the airpot go through immigration and then re board the aircraft to fly to Longyearbyen
Phone shots from the approach to Longyearbyen
Absolutely beautiful here, snow topped mountains in every direction and perfect weather. So perfect in fact that the shuttle bus driver said the only problem with today’s weather is it can only get worse than today
The view of Adventfjorden from right outside my hotel for the night
from the hill looking towards Adventfjorden
On the flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen I met a couple John and Cathy that were going on the same cruise as I and we met up for dinner.
The smoked trio starter, whale, reindeer and seal
The trio, despite being smoked the seal was very mild, the reindeer had a bit of gaminess but it went very well with the smoke. The whale was delicious with a smokey and rich flavor.
After the starter I had a reindeer steak, surprisingly not gamey at all, it was a perfectly prepared medium rare and oh so good with the mashed potatoes. I would gladly have any of these again but the reindeer steak and smoked whale were my favorites. Unfortunately I devoured the steak without getting a photo.
Waiting to board the Polar Pioneer
As we waited I thought a selfie was in order
We met all our guides and then the next couple hours were a whirlwind. After boarding we all found our cabins and I met my cabin mate Dan for the first time. After that there were safety briefings, a life-vest / lifeboat drill and then a trip overview in the ships lounge. Several hour later we settled into our cabin
The view from the porthole in our cabin as we made our way deep into Billefjorden
That first evening we were rewarded with calm waters and incedible reflections
The view from the bow of the ship that evening were incredible and I went to bed very late this first night, still in disbelief that I was on a cruise in the arctic. But before going to bed we were treated with one more spectacular view
A Parhelic circle, double sun halo, sun dogs and a faint pillar all reflected in the calm water of Billiefforden, Svalbard
The next morning after breakfast we went on our first Zodiac excursion ( on an excursion you stay in the zodiac vrs a landing). This excursion was about birds watching and we saw our first glacier.
After returning to the ship we had lunch and headed past Pyramidian for our first landing
Pyramidian, a mostly abandoned Russian mining village. Before the Ukraine invasion ships would dock there and you’d have the chance to explore the town.
Our first landing.
A few shots from deck that first night.
Overnight we headed back out to sea and south toward South Spitsbergen National Park and we made our morning landing at Gnålodden on the north side of Hornsund
That afternoon we relocated did a quick excursion and saw our first seal
The next morning was a landing near a glacier, with beautiful bergy bits(bergy bit is actually the official name for a medium to large fragment of ice, greater than 3 feet but less than 16 feet tall) close to the shore. On the way back to the ship we saw our first Walruses.
In the afternoon we made a landing near a bird cliff with a large breeding colony of little auk, and love was in the air.
Back on the ship during our evening briefing, after dinner, they told us that our plans had changed. We had originally planned to sail south and then east around the southern tip of Spitsbergen and into the ice between Spitsbergen and Edge Island to look for Polar Bears. But updated weather forecasts indicated that the path of an incoming storm had shifted and heading southeast would put us in the middle of BIG weather. This is a good time to point out the difference between a cruise and expedition.
A cruise is a voyage for leisure and relaxation, with a planned itinerary of activities, often involving large ships with various amenities and entertainment. An expedition, is a voyage focused on exploration and discovery, typically in remote or natural areas, often involving smaller ships, specialized equipment, and guided activities.
So while the organizers of the trip had a general idea of what we wanted to do they met daily with the ships guides and Captain to update our plans. And so this change in the weather changed our plans and as we decision was made that we would head north and sail through the night to put some distance between our ship and the storm coming our way.
A view of the coast as we sailed north
Day 4 - Saturday, June 10th, 2023
We woke up this morning to an announcement over the ships PA, from the ships captain, telling us that there was a mechanical problem over night and that we were back in the harbor near Longyearbyen. And asking us to join him in the lounge for a trip update. This was unusual and not planned, we still had 7 days of our planned expedition, and the chatter was concerning. What was going on?
That first update wasn’t good. The ships engine developed troubles as we headed north over the night and the decision was made to return to port.
Update 2 - They were trying to find an engineer to repair the ship and unfortunately there wasn’t one in Longyearbyen. They would need to find one and have them flown in from the mainland, but it was Saturday so hopefully they could do so today since there wasn’t a flight scheduled Sunday. So it may not be Monday until we have an engineer to look at and hopefully repair the engine.
Update 3 - They found an engineer and he was on the flight from mainland Norway that would arrive later this afternoon.
Update 4 - The engineer arrived and resolved the problems and we were going to head north toward the ice (and hopefully Polar Bears)
Update 5 - The engineer decided to stay onboard for the rest of our trip just in case.
At dinner that night everyone was happy to see him, after all he saved our trip. The next day he fixed the sauna, since he wanted to use it after the planned polar plunge. And for the rest of the trip he joined us as a guest on our landings, excursions and in the lounge in the evenings.
Bubbles - during all ups and downs of the day we did one landing on the outskirts of Longyearbyen and a dull and muddy beach but I did manage to make one image I liked
The following morning when we woke we were still heading north, our goal was the North West point of Spitsbergen and the sea ice.
Around midday we did a landing on the shore of Smeerenburg at an old whaling station. We saw our second huddle of walrus and a pair of harbor seals
After our landing the ship was back to cruising north
That evening as we entered the sea ice, the bear watch began. The sea ice is most likely where we would see bears as this is the area the bears like to hunt for seals.
I stayed up late this night as we slowly headed north gliding through the sea ice looking for the “ice” bear. This was an experience like nothing else I’ve ever done. My expectation is that going through the ice would be crashing and loud as broke and pushed the ice to the side. In reality it was the exact opposite just a slow and steady power. With an occasional groan of the ships haul as it pushed against the ice and then the low crack as the ice would break and yield.
Our first indication that there were bears in the area. Around midnight I finally forced myself off the deck, to my cabin and into my bunk.
Attention fellow cruisers! crackled through the speaker in the corner of the cabin.
Wait why are they waking us, it can’t be morning, didn’t I just go to bed. After a moment I realized that yes I had only went to sleep about an hour ago.
But the announcement continued . . . they had spotted 3 bears on the Fast Ice and one was feeding on a seal off the bow of the boat.
The adrenaline hit! A bear, a bear! get dressed grab the camera and stumble out of the cabins and to the front of the ship. Some of us went to the bow, some went to the bridge and some went to the viewing platform above the bridge.
Were’s the bear?
One of the passengers that had been on the bridge when they spotted the feeding bear and was helping point it out to us. It was just a tiny dot way off in the distance(we estimated about a mile) and was quickly nicknamed the “pixel bear” since it was only a few pixels in size in our view finders.
Our “pixel bear” at approximate 800mm (shot at 400mm with a 1.4 teleconverter on a cropped sensor camera) it’s tiny but you can still see it’s a bear and it’s eating a seal.
After bit the bear moved away from the seal heading West and away from the ship. The crew advised us that with the seal still being there it would likely be back and that they would let us know if the bear came back.
So, I headed back to bed
During the night the ship was able to move closer to the seal and in the morning we were told that the bear had come back. You might wonder why we didn’t just break the ice and get really close but what we learned was while the ship is able to break through ice, they are not permitted to break the fast ice. Fast ice is sea ice that is still attached or fastened to the shore.
Our bear back to feeding on the seal along with some sea birds
Then something extraordinary happened, Portia a name one of the passengers gave our bear got curious and came to us
Then she hung around and gave us a show
And the Portia found a stick! It seems as if Polar bears are just big puppies.
After awhile Portia wondered off and we took a break for lunch. After linch we did a zodiac cruise and saw stranded icebergs and some other wildlife.
In the afternoon two of the bears hung out on the ice and at one point took a nap
We spent all day in this area. Around midnight we awoke to another announcement that there were four bears, one of them was right on the edge of the ice and the zodiacs were being launched to go see them up close. Sadly by the time we made it into the water the bear had moved away from the edge of the ice and it started to snow.
This was the last we saw of the bears and the next morning we were heading north again
A photo of one of the ships navigation systems showing that we made it to 80 degrees 10.074minutes north. This was at the edge of the pack ice and our northern most point. This is very close to the North Pole, less than 600 miles, which is at 90 degrees north. At this point we were further north than any permanent settlements and likely further north than all but a handful of people in the entire world.
Next came a real Polar Plunge, in 29 degree water. About half of the passengers and or hero the engineer that fixed the ship took place in the plunge. The rest of the passengers lined along the rail of the ship and cheered us all on. One at a time we made our way down the gang plank put on the harness (in case of sudden cardiac arrest, yes it can happen) and jumped in. After making out way back up the gang plank we were great with a warm dry towel and a shot of Russian vodka, Skol! and off to the sauna we would go. It was a really party atmosphere and a highlight of the trip
After the plunge we headed south a bit to Liefdefjord, considered one of the most beautiful in Svalbard. We saw a curious seal another glacier, Some King Eider ducks and some beautiful views
This next morning we did a zodiac cruise along the front of a glacier and saw the bluest ice I’ve ever seen.
That afternoon we did a landing to check out our third huddle of walrus
Lenticular clouds over a mountain in the distance
The light in the evening as we were making our way to our stop for the night
The following day was our last full day of the cruise, here’s some views from the ship
On our final stop we say an arctic fox, sadly I didn’t get any usable photos and more incredible ice.
And with that we started the long 14hour cruise back to port for disembarkment the following morning.
I’d bored my return flight at 2am Svalbard time for the 36 hour journey home. But that did give a few hours to grab some shots around Longyearbyen.
A collage of a few cellphone shots I took of Huskies Cafe
If you want more may I suggest two different YouTube videos
The first from my friend Neil, and one of our photography guides, that spent most of the trip taking video
The second from Thomas Heaton, who is the reason that I knew about this trip and had the chance to go
WrestleParty 360
I was a huge fan of WWF wrestling as a kid, before the name changed to WWE, following wrestles such as George “the Animal” Steele, André the Giant, "Superstar" Billy Graham, Bob Backlund, The Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan and all the other stars of the era. But hadn't given pro wrestling a thought in years. Until one of my favorite bartenders, Mike, at Tellus mentioned it to me earlier this year that he was working on setting up an event. Prior to that I had heard the Mike wrestles but that was about it. Chatting with Mike I found out that he wrestled under the name of Tim Donst. So of course I googled him and saw that he’s been wrestling for quite some time. A bit more time passed an Mike told me they had a date and that tickets would be on sale soon. So as soon as they went on sale I bought a ticket, when your friend does an event you support it.
Fast forward a few more weeks to April 13th, the day of the show. And of course, I arrived late to the now Sold Out show. As I entered the Temple (the big room at tells) it was packed and the crowd was going crazy. I had brought my camera with the hope of taking some photos but now standing in the back of the room I wasn't sure what I'd be able to get.
These are OK but I wasn't going to be able to really get any action.
Thankfully as the next match started I was able to work my way through the crowd and find an open spot right next to the ring, wow this was a great spot.
Unfortunately I didn’t get the names of these first wrestler I saw
Undercard match Breaux Keller VS Tony Deppen
Undercard Match The Stepdads VS Afro Dojo Karate Expo
The co-main event Drew Gulak VS Lucky 13
The Main Event - Tim Donst VS Ultramantis Black
What an incredible time, I had a Blast!
Great North American Eclipse of 2024
1 Year Later
Let me tell you my story of the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse (Edited from my FB post made April 11th, 2024)
I saw my first total solar eclipse in 2017 at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina and I knew the moment it was over that I wanted to see the incredible natural phenomenon again but 2024 seemed so far off so I mostly put it out of my mind.
The Corona as seen during totality during the August 21st, 2017 Total Solar Eclipse
Then in January of 2024 I saw a post from a photographer friend Michael Sheely he had posted about his plans to camp in Oswego to view the eclipse.
The Planning Begins
And the gears started to turn! Time to start planning so down I went into the black hole of the internet. I quickly found out that although the path of totality (where you want to be, more on this later) would pass less than 300 hundred miles from home. Historically speaking, based on weather patterns (you want, no you NEED, clear sky) the best place would be south west Texas near the Mexican border. I actually considered this for a bit but pretty quickly decided against a 4000 mile road trip. Check out the path again bingo the center of totality was going almost directly over Buffalo and Niagara Falls and that’s doable as a day trip. Wouldn’t it be incredible to witness the eclipse over the falls. But the crowds, the crowds will be crazy (in 2017 we were in bumper to bumper traffic for many many hours trying to return home from Greenville) did I really want to deal with traffic like that again. I also found that due to some unique terrain and weather patterns the southern shores of Lake Erie & Lake Ontario had the potential to be a pretty good location.
While still trying to pinpoint exactly where I’d aim for I sent an email to a friend Johnny Larsen I made on my summer 2023 Arctic Cruise to Svalbard who lives near Toronto. I asked if he’d ever photographed an eclipse and would he be interested in getting together for the event. John quickly replied that he and his partner Cathleen Audrey A (who I also met in Svalbard) would be interested, but we needed to find a place to stay. Cathy quickly got on the assignment and found us a nice little cabin on Lake Seneca about 5 miles north of Watkins Glen. I was narrowing down our photo location to somewhere between Rochester & Oswego ( both less than 90 minutes from our cabin). We would pick our exact location the morning of, a plan was coming together!
The Weather Worries
Jump forward to the end of March and I began to check the weather forecasts. One week out and I began to obsessively check the weather forecasts, and it wasn’t looking good. If we were willing to drive a bit more we could expand our range of options from Buffalo to Watertown, so I added those cities to my weather watch. Check the weather, still not looking good.
Just a few of the screen grabs I was taking of the weather forecast as we were getting closer to the 8th.
Saturday Morning I ran a few errands, packed the car and headed to the cabin. Check the weather. I arrived just in time to share, with John & Cathy, a beautiful sunset over the lake as it poked between a small break in the mostly cloudy sky.
A quick selfie of John, Cathy & I as we enjoyed the sunset
A beautiful sunstar as the sun peaks through a small crack in the clouds as it sets on April 6th, 2024
Check the weather. The next day, Sunday morning, and all day was perfectly clear blue skies with not a cloud to be seen. Check the weather. We took a hike, Check the Weather, did a bit of wine tasting, Check the Weather, and had a campfire under a beautiful clear sky. Check the weather and check it again, the forecast hadn’t improved “mostly clear in the morning with clouds after lunch, and then clearing the following night” all the way from Buffalo to Watertown. Anyway not feeling real confident but after a bit of discussion we made a plan to head towards Oswego the next morning.
The Day Arrives
I woke early on Monday morning and before even getting out of bed I Checked the Weather. The forecast hadn’t improved and if I was being honest with myself it was looking worse. Damn It, I was feeling broken and worried that we were going to be skunked by the weather. “Oh well, I might as well get a shower and some coffee”. Sitting enjoying my coffee watching a beautiful clear sunrise and feeling down, John asked if we should reconsider our plan? Check the weather, Vermont and Maine looked like the best choice but it just didn’t seem like we would be able to make it, so look further South West. Cleveland looked promising also too far, how about Erie? We could make Erie, it was about 3 1/2 hours drive, and looking at the radar forecast for Erie it looked like the worst of the storm would pass by 1, would the clouds clear? Jump over to Astropheric (a great app that goes beyond just a weather forecast and gives hourly predictions of Cloud Cover, Transparency & Seeing Ability. it’s the app you want to look at if you’re thinking of shooting the Milky Way). If we quickly had breakfast and hit the road we should be able to make it to Erie in time for the start of the eclipse. So change of plans, we’d try for Erie!
Erie would be a 3 ½ hour drive but we could make it
On the way to Erie I was back on Astropheric and the midday update showed decent conditions. Now to find a spot I’d have loved to go to Presque Isle but I was worried that arriving around 1 we would have a hard time getting on the peninsula and finding parking. Scanning the Erie store I saw a small town with a small beach about 15 miles from Erie. Freeport Beach in the town of North East, that’s our spot.
We arrived at Halli Reid Park and the sky was clearing
We arrived at about 1:30 and when I hopped out of the car to take a quick look a parking spot opened up, so we grabbed it. As we were unloading the car the sun popped through a small break in the clouds, things were looking up.
We found a spot on the beach and you could see the clouds out over Lake Erie starting to break up. Time to get busy setting up the cameras.
Start taking photos
Around 2 and just as the eclipse started and the clouds cleared and we could see the sun!
Start taking photos, (I was taking 7 shot brackets on both cameras every 5 minutes)
Check my shots and take more photos.
Around 3, although totality wouldn’t start until 3:16, it was getting noticeably darker BUT we could also see clouds out over the lake and coming our way. Take more photos.
Which would arrive first totality or the clouds? Take more
3:10 take more photos and remove the filters, the clouds are getting closer.
3:15 about 90 seconds before totality was to start I started taking shots about every 10 seconds.
3:16 Keep taking photos!
The Main Event
(This next section all took place in the 3 minutes and 42 seconds that we had totality)
There it is the Diamond Ring! Keep taking photos!
The First Diamond Ring
Bailey’s Beads! Keep taking photos!
Bailey’s Beads
And the corona, WOW it’s Beautiful!!!, tears. (And I mean REAL TEARS running down my cheeks, seeing totality is such an incredibly overwhelming emotional experience).
The Corona just starting to glow
The best Corona shot I got
Keep taking photos!
Time to take a breath and check in with my friends. We had all gotten some shots. We were all emotional and could hardly talk, (If you know you know)! I think we took a selfie but I’m not sure.
All of us feeling pretty good as we had just witnessed Totality of the Great North American Eclipse of 2024
I do remember picking up my binoculars and getting a great view of the corona and several solar prominences (not the same as solar flares but similar, google it if you want more details).
Solar prominences
I switched to my 400 and took some handheld shots.
Second Diamond Ring, Taken handheld with the 400.
The Second Diamond Ring
Move the body back to the lens still mounted on the tripod, Take more photos.
Finally a moment to peak at the back of the camera, oh NOOO my shots are all just solid black! What happened?!?
After loading them to my computer, I think I know what happened. I can see that everything was shot at f /16 and ISO 100. The 7 shot brackets were ( 1/4000, 1/2000, 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60). I checked my first shots on the back of the camera and they looked OK. Those first shots were almost full sun in clear blue skies. But as the level of the light dropped I never took a second look and everything was drastically underexposed.
Lightroom and RAW to the rescue! Thankfully I was shooting in RAW and I could push them up 3 to 5 full stops in lightroom along with a nearly 100% increase in the shadows. Ideally these would have all been exposed closer to f/ 8 and ISO 400 or 800 with the same 7 shot brackets.
What I saw in Lightroom before editing
And it’s over and the sun starts to reemerge from behind the moon
The sun giving us a big smile and you can see the clouds are returning
Composite photo showing the sequence of the great eclipse of April 8, 2024
Nine Days in Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks
The trip started at 3:30am on day 1 when the alarm went off. Get up get a quick shower and on the road to BWI by 4 for a 7:30 flight. The plan was that the group from all over the states would meet at the Jackson Hole airport by 2pm. This would give us the time to get checked into our hotel and still get in a sunset shoot. As luck would have it many had travel delays and the last of us didn’t arrive until 4pm. With sunset around 5:15 Dennis our leader gave us the choice of check-in to our hotel or go critter hunting till sunset and check in later. The choice was unanimous, Critter Hunting! So although most of us had never met each other we quickly figured out the seating arrangement in the 3 cars and off we went. Less than 5 miles from the airport we found our first Critter, a moose munching its way across the landscape in the beautiful late afternoon sun. This would be our week, photography, eat, late night hot chocolate and a great time with a group of people I never met before.
Tales from The Grand Tetons
Evening 1 - Thursday the 16th
That first shoot although short allowed me to start the trip off with some great images
Through My Lens: Iceland
Write here
Photo by Dan Gillespie
About the Show
My first trip to Iceland was in November of 2017 and I immediately fell in love with the country and its epic and otherworldly landscapes. It's a landscape photographer's dream. Since then I’ve been back 5 times exploring new areas on each trip. Around every corner you will find another amazing view be it a waterfall, glacier, black sand beach, thermal pool, ice cave or an active volcano. The variety is endless. In my show Through My Lens: Iceland I am sharing some of my favorite photos from those trips; my hope is that you appreciate the rugged beauty and be inspired to perhaps plan your own trip to the Land of Fire and Ice!
A virtual walkthrough of the show.
The Images as printed for the show.
Dettifoss - June 2022
Hallgrímskirkja - June 22
Eastfjords Light - May 2021
Mt Kirkjufell & Kirkjufellsfoss - May 2021
Vestrahorn and Stokksnes - May 2021
Solfar - Sun Voyager - June 2022
Puffins - A Gathering of Clowns - July 2021
The Dance of The Green Lady - March 2024
Reynisdrangar - The Three Trolls - July 2024
Sand Patterns 1 - May 2021
Sand Patterns 2 - May 2021
Sand Patterns 3 - May 2021
Budakirkja - Budir Black Church - June 2022
The Portal - March 2024
Hvitserkur - The Drinking Dragon - May 2021
Fagradalsfjall - June 2022
Bruarfoss - March 2024
Hvalnes and Eystrahorn - June 2022