Spitzberg Souvenirs
Film making during a week trip to Spitzberg.
End of June 2014, we spent a week on a ship in the pack ice north of Svalbard.
Latitude 80° - Only 1'100 km from the North Pole... a little freezing as the temperature was only 2 to 6 Celsius these first Summer days.
Our goal was to see the Little Auk and,
if possible, a few Polar Bears.
Click on any picture to view in full size.
Midnight Sun.
June 25th - 11:59 PM
Little Auks are Alcidae, as are Puffins or Razorbills, but only to be seen in Svalbard and Groenland.
Rather small in size - only 20 cm - one might think it will therefore be difficult to get a good picture of them. However, as they were very confident, they came close to people, which helped us getting these nice results as you can see :
On another hand, the sight of one or two Polar Bears would have really been a plus.
Nikon Coolpix P-520 4.3-180 mm (24-1000mm 24x36 equivalent)
Fortunately, everybody was quiet enough to permit this young female to come very close to the ship.
(click on picture to enlarge)