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Antarctica

In January 2022, my wife and I went on our (delayed by 1.5 years) honeymoon to Antarctica with National Geographic/Lindblad Expeditions. We started from the southernmost point of Argentina and spent 2 weeks cruising around the edge of the Antarctic peninsula with a few shore excursions.

A plane landing over the water with mountains in the background.
A plane landing at the Ushuaia airport.
A glacier with layers of black volcanic ash.
A glacier with layers of volcanic ash.
A yawning leopard seal lying on its side on an ice floe.
A leopard seal yawning on an ice floe. Taken from about 100ft away in an inflatable Zodiac, which they are apparently known to pop.
An orca swimming towards a Minke whale, both partially breaching the surface of the ocean.
An orca and a Minke whale. This was one of two fairly large pods of orcas we saw.
A group of penguins leaping out of the water and diving back in.
Some porpoising Adélie penguins.
A wide landscape with mostly very bright white ice and snow.
The antarctic continent. Taken after hiking up a hill and it was actually pretty warm with the sun out (~40°F).
A Weddell seal lying on its side with its eyes closed.
A Weddell seal trying to nap.
Two penguins on a hill looking to the side.
Two Adélie penguins considering sliding down the hill.
A penguin chick following behind an adult penguin. Many other penguins in the background.
A Gentoo penguin chick following its parent. There were thousands of these things in the colony and they smelled awful.
A penguin diving off an iceberg into the water with others watching.
Adélie penguins diving into the water from an iceberg.
Two penguins facing each other with their beaks open.
Two Adélie penguins chattering at each other. Taken with a very cool, very heavy 600mm telephoto lens that I was able to borrow from National Geographic for the duration of the trip.
A penguin head and torso leaning in from the left with a few other penguins in a line down the center at increasing distances.
Some Adélie penguins lining up very nicely for their portraits.
A humpback whale breaching out of the ocean.
A humpback breaching out of the water. There was actually another one doing this simultaneously out of frame to the right, but I didn't get it.
A penguin jumping up onto an iceberg from the ocean with a water jet trail behind it. Several other penguins are climbing up the iceberg as well.
An Adélie penguin demonstrating how they get up on the icebergs. They don't jump high enough and slip off pretty often.
Many penguins standing in close proximity on a rocky island.
A colony of over 1.5 million Adélies on Paulet island.
Many penguins out of focus in the foreground with a single focused penguin in the center staring directly into the camera.
An Adélie staring me down out of the crowd.
An orca head peeking out of the ocean.
A spy-hopping orca. This was the second pod that the crew woke us up at 3:45 AM to see.
The sun starting to appear over a snow-covered ridge.
The sun "rising" over a ridge. Since it was summer, the sun never fully set below the horizon, so this blueish light is about as dark as it got.
A snow-covered mountain reflected in very still water.
A mountain reflected in the water.
A snow-covered mountain with fog around it in the background and sheets of sea ice packed densely in the foreground.
A bunch of very picturesque sea ice. The ship had broken through it only about 20 minutes earlier, but it reforms very quickly.
A penguin walking from right to left with mountains in the background.
A Gentoo going for a stroll.
A humpback's tail dripping with water as it dives and mountains in the background.
A diving humpback's tail.
A penguin with its head tilted down against its wing.
A preening Gentoo.
A penguin walking towards the camera down a narrow groove in the snow.
A Gentoo waddling towards me down one of the "highways" that they dig out by walking over the same path.

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