Forty-eight years ago in the Hamilton Central School library I opened a book that captured me completely and made me promise myself I would one day go to Antarctica.

As a young lad, I was the type who preferred to be running around outside either playing or exploring nature than sitting inside and reading a book. Until then, the only book that I ever read was one that was assigned reading for school (Dr. Seuss doesn't count). One day, the school librarian suggested a book that she hoped would capture my attention which was Endurance, by Albert Lansing and tells the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's epic polar expedition on his quest to be the first to arrive at the South Pole. Soon after the expedition left the whaling station in Stromness bay on South Georgia Island, they ran into lots of pack ice and that ice eventually crushed and sank the ship. Then they had to survive. Trust me, read the book.

To my 14 year-old self, this enthralling book had it all - exploration, adventure, nature, leadership, planning, mental fortitude, calculated risks, responsibility and an insane amount of good luck. I remember thinking that someday I wanted to visit Antarctica but had no idea when, how or more importantly with what money I would achieve my dream of visiting the 7th continent.

Fast forward from sometime in 1978 to June of 2025. I was on one of my photo adventures visiting the Svalbard archipelago inside the arctic circle enjoying my own epic voyage capturing images of lots of icebergs, seals, seabirds, walruses and polar bears. During that journey, the expedition leaders mentioned that they were going to have a cruise in Antarctica in March because that's when the whales were at their peak in the Antarctic peninsula. Concurrently, a young Swiss couple also on the ship had been to Antarctica a few years ago and they really loved it. They both strongly advised the following: If you liked Svalbard then you'll love Antarctica.

Author's Note: the March 2026 blog post will detail my entire trip and will feature a link to the top 50 images from the 21 day voyage.

Each of my sons asked me what made this voyage such an epic one. Any Antarctica and South Georgia Island journey will be pretty spectacular yet this wildlife and nature pilgrimage far exceeded any of my expectations for two reasons. The first was that I was able to snorkel with my underwater camera housing using my Nikon Z8. Being able to photograph fur seals, penguins, brash ice and small icebergs from underwater with professional equipment was an absolutely incredible experience. More on that next month. The second reason was that this trip also included a visit to South Georgia Island before arriving to Antarctica. The concentration of penguins, fur seals, and elephant seals was truly spectacular as this island is special in so many ways.

One of the most serendipitous experiences of the trip was a special connection I made with a certain king penguin in St. Andrew's bay on South Georgia Island. One of the expedition guides mentioned that the penguins were more interactive today than usual. I smiled and acknowledged the comment and then continued capturing images not giving it any more thought. Later, I returned to the area and saw a lone king penguin off to my right. The penguin and I made eye contact. I casually smiled, waved and said in a calm and gentle voice: Hello!

Then I stopped and the penguin approached me. We were directly facing each other and I instinctively bowed to the penguin to show respect. I don't really know why, I just did. Then, much to my surprise, the penguin returned the bow! My snorkel buddy Laura happened to be nearby and captured a 7 second video of this spontaneous and beautiful interaction. You can view the video here.

Speaking of respect, it is required that humans keep a 5 meter distance from all land-based wildlife so not to cause them any stress and I respected that rule throughout my trip. The only way you can get closer is when they approach you which is what happened with the King and I. Who knows, conceivably I bowed to him is because it was a king penguin?

I am no Dr. Doolittle and I can't speak with animals but I do believe that they can sense feelings from other living creatures and perhaps that explains my special king penguin interaction on South Georgia Island.

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On my trip, I was well educated by Marine Biologists and Naturalists typically during the days at sea. During one of those educational sessions, I was introduced to an organization called Happywhale. It's their mission to increase global understanding and caring for marine environments through creating high quality conservation science and education.

One of the cool things that can be done with Happywhale is capturing images of a whale's tail and uploading them to their website for identification and tracking. In this way the whale can be followed by citizen scientists such as myself and then you can receive notifications about the location of any whale that you have photographed and followed. Normally, I am not a fan of taking photos of whales because you can't capture an image of the entire animal, only part of the head and torso or a shot of the tail. To my surprise, this made looking for whale tail images challenging and fun and I ended up uploading a total of eleven humpback whale tail images to the website.

Furthermore, in exchange for a donation you are allowed to name a whale. As the years progress, I become more nostalgic and therefore decided to name one of the whales that I spotted - humpback whale HW-MN1303042 - after my father. So from now on, whenever Fred the Bubble Feeder is spotted, his tail is photographed and uploaded to Happywhale, my entire family will receive an email notification allowing all the view his latest sighting. That's pretty cool.

Fulfilling a childhood dream feels like a rare victory. Against all the turns of life, I found my way well enough to make it real. That alone leaves me fulfilled and very humbled.

Lastly, I can't wait to go through all remaining 9,236 images to make my Antarctica and South Georgia Island gallery on my website for next months blog post. Being able to capture exceptional images is awesome but for me it is 100 times better when I am able to share with people and see how they appreciate and enjoy my work. That's what life is all about.