Photographing Penguins in Antarctica

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Thursday, 1 January 2026 - Sailed through the Gerlache Strait with a zodiac landing at Cuverville Island to observe the regions largest Gentoo penguin colony, along with Weddell seals and an isolated Adélie penguin. In the evening, a zodiac cruise and a landing in Paradise Bay provided close views of whales, penguins, and seals concluding with a hike overlooking glaciers descending into the bay.

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We spent the morning traveling through the Gerlache Straight. The Belgian Antarctic Expedition, under Lt. Adrien de Gerlache, explored the strait in January and February 1898, naming it for the expedition ship Belgica. The name was later changed to honor the commander himself.

In 2002, Lynne Cox became the first person to swim a mile in the near-freezing Antarctic Ocean. She performed the swim in Gerlache Strait
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We traveled by huge icebergs - here a huge one is behind smaller iceberg. On the smaller one are black dots, those are penguins!! We would see many more icebergs with small black dots on the trip.
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Passing mountains on our port.
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A tiny iceberg with two Gentoo penguins hitching a ride.
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Lining up ready to head down to the zodiacs. Our leader is David Swindler on the left and his wife Evelyn Fu, and on my left is Van Strohm.
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In the zodiac - I am the left side in the read - the one with gray hair.
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A quick zodiac ride to Cureville Island and the largest Gentoo penguin colony in the Antarctic Peninsula. We will now be on land photographing the penguins, and we cannot lie down, sit, kneel, or squat when taking pictures. The guides coach us to spread our legs far apart and lean over using the screen on the back of the camera to take a picture. Not the best.

A Gentoo races by all the visitors. The penguins did not care about us. They went about their business, and if there was a human in their way, they walked right past. Of course, we tried to stay out of the way.
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Two little penguins make their way up a hill. It was challenging to understand how they climb with short little legs.
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An Adélie penguin, the only one, on the beach. This would be the only Adélie penguin I would see this close even though it is the most widespread penguin species in the Antarctic.
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A Gentoo high-stepping, as it were, through the snow.
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A Gentoo in profile,
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A very chubby Weddell seal on the beach.
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A Gentoo walking by, wings out for balance.
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Not sure why but suddenly one of the penguins would throw their head back and make a very loud sound.
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A Gentoo posing with the ice flows in the background.
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There were several little (very little) chicks in the Gentoo nests.
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Every now and then I captured a chick feeding by sticking its head up the throat of the parent.
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The Gentoo nest on dry land using rocks. Here a penguin adds another rock to the nest. They do not like to travel far and will steal rocks from neighbors. The rocks are also prized by the females, even to the point that a male penguin can get the favors of a female by offering her a choice stone.
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The Gentoo will typically lay two eggs - these two have survived the first few days.
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Jumping into the water from a small iceberg.
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A Gentoo swimming just in front of the zodiac on our return trip to the ship.

They are the fastest underwater swimmers of all penguins, reaching speeds up to 22 mph.
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After dinner we boarded the zodiacs for a trip to explore Paradise Bay. The bay was full of icebergs.
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A Chinstrap penguin on some rocks - waving as we go by?
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Beautiful blue in the ice.
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Air bubble art on the iceberg.
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An iceberg with odd ridges into the water.
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A Weddell seal raises its head to see what the commotion is alongside his iceberg bed.
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A huge iceberg shimmers in the light. Just behind on the right you can see small figures on the shore.
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More beautiful ice.
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A Gentoo penguin heading toward us. It has become a mission to catch one of these small birds that they were swimming.
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We head out on a zodiac at Palaver Point

Our ship dwarfed by Antarctica.
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The surrounding mountains would peek out from the clouds infrequently.
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I finally captured a flying Gentoo penguin!!!
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The beautiful mountain tops.
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Another Weddell seal floats by - watching the strange craft.
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A Leopard seal one of the apex predators in the Antarctic. Adult females can be 12 feet in length and over 1,300 pounds. They eat penguins, fish, krill, and even other seals.
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An Adélie penguin on an iceberg. As we moved around the iceberg, a special composition began to form.
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The iceberg had a hole and the little penguin lined up perfectly as we rode around.
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Very close to the zodiac a Humpback whale displayed its pectoral fin, and we all strained to see where it would come up again. The guide saw bubbles and said the whale was creating a column of bubbles to trap small fish and might breach the surface.
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The whale back came up.
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And the tail flipped up - all very exhilarating.
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And then to our surprise the mouth of the whale breached the surface. The Humpback whale is a baleen whale, using fringed plates in their upper jaws to filter food from the water.
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The whale flapped the water with its pectoral fin and disappeared again.
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We were all straining to see the whale again and right in front of us the mouth of the whale came up again. Quite a sight and so close.
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Four Antarctic terns (or maybe Article terns - they are very similar) on an iceberg.
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A blue hole in an iceberg - just a hole but the colors are so pretty.
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A Antarctic Shag taking off.
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Antarctic Shag nests with little shag chicks. Way up in the rocks - we would see many later in the trip.
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A Gentoo penguin comes down to the waters edge and jumps in. We were watching three as they started toward the water. Hoping that they would jump into the water, we all prepared our cameras. Then this Gentoo penguin leaned over and slid into the water. Not a dramatic entrance - but cute.
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A well carved ice.
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The same Weddell seal (it was a crowded bay). They seem to rise up to see us go by then plop back down.
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We then landed and went on a hike. There were a few Gentoo penguins to meet us.

There were not a lot of penguins, but this landing was a big deal as we were walking not on an island but the continent of Antarctica.
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We hiked up to the top of a hill with a great view of Paradise Bay. You can see the massive glaciers emptying in the bay.
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From the top of the hill looking down on a team in a zodiac watching a whale nearby.
As we ate dinner a flock of penguins swimming was just outside the windows.
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