My adventure to the Svalbard islands actually began already in December 2006. I was working in my studio when a good friend of mine, a fellow photographer, Jordi Bas visited me. He said that he decided to participate in an expedition in the arctic to photograph polar bears, together with his friend Rodrigo Pérez.The expedition was organized by the Norwegian photographer Ole Jørgen Liodden specialized in this type of trips.
After talking to my friend Jordi, and consulting naturfokus web page, I thought that it would be a very interesting experience and so the following day I applied for the Svalbard expedition 07.
During the following months everything had to be prepared; documentation, purchase of airplane tickets, web consultation, information search etc. The expedition would last one week, aboard the M/S Stockholm, a ship with a special charm, and prepared to navigate in those latitudes of the north.
We thought that it was worthwhile to extend the journey that we had hired, and for that reason we decided to travel there one week before the official embarking, with the objective of being able to work photographically from the coast.
We spend the first week at Longyearbyen and its surroundings.
click here to view LongyearbyenLongyearbyen is the administrative capital of the Svalbard islands. The city was primarely dedicated to mining and only recently to tourism. The surroundings of the capital have only one road connecting different exploitations of mineral extraction. In all the islands the landscape in the summer months is alternating tundra with big icy areas.
click here to view the Artic TernOur objective in this part of the trip was to photograph the autochthonous fauna. We realized from the beginning that during the night the animals were more active, so we worked from 16h to 7:30h and had to sleep the whole morning. We followed this timetable for 5 days. It is important to know that at that latitude the sun doesn't set during the summer, and at 2 o clock the sun is at its lowest point, and when the clouds didn't disturb us it was the period of the best light for us.
On July 9 the photographic expedition on the M/S Stockholm provided by the Swedish company Polar Quest around archipelago Svalbard, precisely to the island Nordaustlandet, at the glacier Brasvellbreen, began.
click here to get on the deck of the M/S StockholmThe M/S Stockholm is an old cargo ship with Swedish flag (1954) modified in 1999 for passengers transport. The crew was composed of 7 people. There were 14 passangers, 11 of them were Norwegian photographers and the others Spanish ones.
click here to view the team in a good momentWe left the port of Longyearbyen at 16.oo and we followed north direction. From the beginning we agreed that during the sailing it was convenient for us to rest, and every few hours we would have a stop in some places of photographic interest. It has to be pointed out that the hours of light didn't pose a problem, as we could be working in any moment.
Often we embarked on the Zodiacs to reach the ideal shooting locations.
click here to view photographing sealsWe visited fiords, glaciers, seals colonies, colonies of birds, the polar station in the most northern part of the planet (Ny ÅLESUND) and the icefield polar 81º north latitude, was the most northern point reached by our expedition.
click here to view the Brasvellbreen glacier 01
click here to view the Brasvellbreen glacier 02I noticed that all the Norwegian photographers were strongly attracted by my Manfrotto SPH 303, and the results I obtained with it.
The main objective of the trip was not to capture panoramas, but polar bears, and the arctic fauna of which unfortunately I only have good conventional still images, not spherical ones. Anyway I hope to get back soon to shoot more panoramas.
The arctic ocean is a place where you can perceive an astonishing peace, the tranquility and the slowness that we lack in the cities where we live nowadays. It is really painful to see that the human beings are so little sensitive by causing so much damage to our environment.
Equipment: Nikon D2X and fisheye 10,5 mm head Manfrotto 305, and stitching was done by PTGui and CubicConverter.
The 2008 Photo Expedition Svalbard, will be from 14 to 21 of July 2008. The expedition team is already complete, so in case you're interested to live this incredible experience you will have to subscribe to the 2009 Photo Expedition Svalbard, which will be from 14 to 21 of July. For more information click here.
Jordi Clariana is a professional photographer, 41 year old. His studio IBCE is situated in the city of Lleida, near Barcelona (Spain). His main area of interest is nature photography. At the moment he is preparing a new project ( IBCE 360 ) about spherical phography. Soon their new website www.ibce360.com will be online.
Links:
IBCE360.com
Email: jclariana at ibceav.com
