to enlarge images
Click on icon in upper right corner of slideshow to enlarge images.
On Friday's show we’ll get an update from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) meeting, underway this week in Portland, Oregon.
As part of that meeting, SCAR organizers invited people to enter their “coolest” Antartica photographs for a chance to be included in the exhibition "Our Antarctica — Images from the Great White South." Photos were submitted in four categories: people, places, wildlife and 'elements' (a catch-all category for photos that didn't fit into one of the other three groups). The only rule: No Photoshopping.
Dr. Alexandra Isern, Program Director for Antarctic Earth Sciences at the NSF's Office of Polar Programs, captured the winning photo above at the end of a 2011 trip to McMurdo Station. Isern says one challenge to taking pictures in temperatures that can hover around 20° below is battery life.
"The cold tends to get your battery really quick," Isern says. "And I actually did have my camera shutter freeze open one time."
But none of that mattered for this shot. Isern took it from the plane window as she was leaving Antarctica.
"I was the only one on the cargo aircraft, other than pilots. They let me sit up in the cockpit as we were flying back to Christchurch [New Zealand]. This shot was taken through the front window of the plane. It was a productive flight back," Isern says.
The 53 winning photographs are on display at the Hilton Portland. Click on the slideshow above for a selection of the top shots.
Discussion