On previous occasions, Colin New had visited the club presenting his images of nudes and flowers. Tonight however he was going to do something a little different – show us his holiday snaps. Luckily they were of his recent sub-Antarctic sightseeing tour of Antarctica and the Falkland Islands.
The journey started for Colin at Buenos Aries, where the main tourist attraction strangely enough, turned out to be the cemetery.
Colin described Recoleta Cemetery as a sort of ‘des res’ for the dead. The entrance to the cemetery was through gates with tall Greek columns. The cemetery contained many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in an array of architectural styles. It includes graves of many of Argentina’s historical figures, but Eva Perón was the most visited grave as she is still worshipped by the poor.
An interesting and unique aspect of La Recoleta is a colony of feral cats that resides within the gates, and Colin had some impressive prints showing the deserted cemetery with the cats as the only sign of life.
Colin boarded a small ship ‘Clipper Adventurer’ max 100 passengers and set sail for South Shetlands. With Force 8 gale for 3 days, Colin had ample opportunities for capturing the rough sea on camera though his porthole.
South Shetland are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about 120 kilometres north of the Antarctic Peninsula and proved to be beautiful with its ice and penguins. Colin had been concerned about camera exposure, but found the overcast skies ideal for photography. The climate is cloudy and humid all year round and very strong westerly winds blow at all seasons
Colin caught the feeling of isolation with his ice shots, and managed to capture the ever-changing ice formations, and the amazing sublime colours. The club were astonished to learn that these images were straight shots with no colour enhancing.
Next stop for Colin was South Georgia..
Captain Cook described South Georgia as cold, cloudy, savage and horrible - and Colin was inclined to agree! This territory is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia and a chain of smaller islands .
They arrived at Gold Harbour, so called because the sun's rays make the cliffs yellow with their light in the morning and evening. A large colony of King Penguins were the welcoming committee. The baby penguins are covered in fluffy brown fur and looked completely different to the adult king penguins with their striking black heads and orange-yellow patterning.
Throughout the 19th century South Georgia was a sealers' base and, in the following century, a whalers' base until whaling ended in the 1960s. The first land-based whaling station and permanent habitation, was established at Grytviken. The old whaling station has been preserved as a museum.
With the end of the whaling industry the stations were abandoned. Apart from a few preserved buildings such as the museum and church at Grytviken, only their decaying remains survive.
Colin captured the bad feel of the place, focusing on the remnants from the whaling trade are littered around., including stark shots of ovens, and whale bones he found scattered in front of the old whaling boats. Even now, the shore around Grytviken is littered with whale bones and the rusting remains of great vats which held elephant seal & whale oil are scattered around.
The final destination was the Falkand Islands,
This entailed more Force 8 gales before reaching the Falkland Islands where the weather was glorious when they arrived. Colin thought this was an odd place on arrival - when mine warnings could be seen on the beach. But things improved when he reached the West Falkands called Saunders Island, the 4th largest island of the Falklands Islands. Colin presented images of black browed Albatross, and Rockhopper penguins whose distinctive crest feathers on their heads, bright orange-red bills and tiny blood red eyes gave them a distinct punk feel.
Competition Secretary Duncan Hill gave the vote of thanks. Although Colin is renowned for his images of nudes and flowers, his background as a club photographer means he likes to try his hand at everything. Duncan praised Colin who had thoroughly entertained the club with spectacular images of landscapes, ice flow colours and cracking bird pictures, and so generously imparted his knowledge.
