A Photographic Journey South of the Antarctic Circle

When you first arrive south of the Antarctic Circle, you might just feel as though you’ve landed on another planet, one whose colors and weather patterns are so extreme, they inspire awe. Awesome, that’s Antarctica.

On our first Antarctic morning, after crossing the Drake Passage, we stepped foot off the gangway of the MS Expedition and into a zodiac that bobbed calmly at the water’s surface. We were about to be blow away, but in a way that none of us had quite expected.

Behind each giant hulk of floating ice, the Antarctic light bends, seemingly with the Antarctic wind. The density of whites and blues of icebergs and glaciers take on a new character, their forms and hues like none we’d ever known, like nothing we could ever describe. A light from within the ice whose depths know an inky black sea.

This was our Antarctic journey on the Quest for the Antarctic Circle Tour. But this was really Mother Nature’s dazzling show.

Late afternoon reflections in Antarctica

A zodiac ride through the icy waters to get up close with glaciers.

The real life Happy Feet at Danco Island

The clouds clear at Prospect Point

Snow leopards lazing on the ice near the Fish Islands.

After a dip in the icy waters at Deception Island, the MS Expedition waits to take us back to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina