Frosty Foot Photog

Home pt2

2009-12-24T17:20:00.000-08:00

So I haven't updated in awhile, either with pictures or words but I'm gonna do it now.

Coming home has been kinda stressful for me this year. I ended a relationship, did a lot of driving, and went to a few museums.

When I left Palmer we traveled to Hugo Island to repair some scientific equipment. The first attempt to get to shore wasn't very successful due to the sea ice. The next morning the ice decided to clear out and along with the clear sky gave us a beautiful day.

After hugo we stopped in a secluded bay so some man over board drills could be done which enabled us to get out on the Zodiacs in some crystal clear water. The shot boating excursion was very much appreciated by all the north bound folks.

The trip North from here was pretty uneventful except for our last night was a little rough while we went up the cost of South America before heading in the straits.

After a night in Punta Arenas I traveled to Santiago where a long layover gave us the chance to head into the city. The city was fun to walk around but did remind me that as much as I don't care for cities they are still nice to visit for a day or so. After the layover it was just plane rides north.

Home pt 1

2009-11-05T14:26:00.000-08:00

So I am finally home, well sorta, right now I'm in Savannah but close enough. The last few weeks have been really busy for me, but I've finally gotten so time and internet to up load quite a few new pictures to the palmer gallery. I'm still trying to organize my thoughts a little before I write a nice summary of my trip home, but I will do it shortly.

The End is Near!

2009-10-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

As I type my north bound boat is sitting at the pier. I will be officially on board sometime tomorrow, and Thursday I'll be starting my week trip home.
One of the first things I hope to do when I get home is to post a nice update, and talk more about my stay here at station and all the other stuff that goes with it.

Also there are a few new pictures that have been posted, or at least should have been.

Changes

2009-09-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

Consider for a minute, that you find yourself living in isolation. For seven months you get to interact with maybe sixty other people or so. Then consider that three of those months are spent with 15 other people, and no one else. Add to that the fact you can travel no more than two miles in any direction.
To be sitting in my room and consider that the orange boat on the pier will be leaving in a day, and with it 95% of your "family" with it. That is a hard thing to take. Not only that but they are replaced with a bunch of new faces, some of which you know but most you do not.
That is my world right now, in ways the ship removes me from the isolation I've been feeling the past few months, but it also at times feels like it makes it worse.
When you have the number of people you live with all of a sudden just triple, you find yourself sometimes doing all you can to hide and escape, to go back to your small world. It's not that these people aren't cool people and a joy to work and live with, I'm sure. No it is the fact that they are not your people. Everything that has been your everyday life is changing, and some times it is a harder thing then you may think.
The only way some one not on station could picture it would be like this:
Sitting in you home you get a phone call, "hey come out here and help me park, the voice on the other line says". You open the door to see your crazy brother, driving a converted school bus, of the short kind. As you help him park and hope to hell he doesn't run you or your lawn gnome down you notice a bunch of faces pressed on the windows of the bus. You brother gets out and tells you your family will be leaving in a few days, and in it's place he's leaving a group of gypsies who will take there place while you stay behind for a short time. While the gypsies are nice, and do most of the things you family did, they don't do it the same way. At times this gets on your nerves greatly at times.
When your family packs and loads into the bus, you need to go and help you brother get out of the driveway, and as he drifts down the road, you jump into the middle of the road to get one last look before they drive out of sight.
Even if you know you will soon follow them your family is now gone, and you are left to adjust to the ways of the gypsies. Because there is not changing their ways to fit you, it is you who must adjust.

But the Best part of the changes is the fact that I get to leave soon, get to see MY family again. But I am also feeling this urge to just get in a car, on a motorcycle, what ever and just go someplace any place but home.
As much as I want to see the people I miss and love, I don't know if I can just stay in one place much longer, my legs they need to be stretched.

Penguin Plunge

2009-09-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

I've signed up for the N. Bennington Penguin Plunge to raise money for the Vermont Special Olympics. Please visit my fundraising page and donate what ever you can, it's for a great cause.

I'll do my best to swim around for a bit, and enjoy the water. Plus there could be free prints going out to people, if I raise enough money. That's the only way I have of really saying thank you to those who help me.

Up until the plunge I may do a few different things to help raise some extra cash so keep your eyes open.

My Fund raising page!

Copyright

2009-09-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

So I've done some thinking about copyright and all my pictures are now covered under CC. Learn more by clicking below.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Training

2009-09-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

So even though my Training to come here happened almost six months ago, it's not until just recently that I've managed to get pictures posted in any great number. For now they are just on Flickr but should have their own gallery here soonish.

Also I've decided to put up a new section for gear I use called... Gear. Not supper creative but it gets the point across. I've had some questions as to gear I use for pictures. So I figured that would be a good place to talk about it. I'll talk about what it is that I'm using how I like it, if I'd buy it again, etc... This will cover more then just geek gadgetry but also outdoor gear that is both issued and stuff I brought down myself. My first installment should be up in a few days, it will start with the cameras I use.

Fixed

2009-09-08T16:07:00.000-07:00

So I fixed the picture issue and have added some new pictures also.

More Pictures

2009-09-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well I've up loaded a new gallery, that has pictures from last winter season here at Palmer. As usually the gallery might grow depending on what I decide to add to it. Also due to some technical oversights on my part some of the galleries might not be showing up how I'd like them or how they should but I should have that fixed tomorrow.

If there is anything that you'd like to see more of or would like me to write about let me know.

Also you can check out my photo stream here.

Sliding on your butt is so much fun!

2009-08-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

So I was on the edge of wanting to go boating, but was so glad that I did. After spending half an hour pushing through the ice we could finally head to the island of choice, Hermit.

Hermit a somewhat hilly island with a small peak that is easily summit-able. The best way to enjoy the Hermit, like most of the the other islands, is with snowshoes unless you can ski which I can't. The landing spot is located in a small cove that is near the base of the hill, and centrally located to the rest of the island. Snowshoes are a must at minimum, other wise you tend to post hole fairly deep, which can happen even with them on, like more than waist deep even. Which makes the snowshoes falling off all the more worse, when you take a step and sink really deep and fight to get out of the snow that is now trying to consume you.

After climbing a somewhat steep hill and having a snowshoe come lose, I met up with Jeff and Casey, heading the opposite direction, and they get to slide down the hill, they chose the right way to go. Continuing on to the top of the hill, I am greeted with an awesome view that is hard to put in words as well as pictures. Hermit has one of the highest peaks on the outlaying islands so you can see all around you from the top and with it being clear like it was, made for a great view. With that view I noticed Jeff and Casey again, only this time covered in snow with a track leading from where they were to were I was, hmmm. After yelling down I find out they slid down, so what was I to do but follow?

The ride down was a blast, even with all the snow in my face kicked up by the snowshoes on my feet. slidding isn't the only fun stuff I've done here. Last year I decided it would be fun to barrel roll down a hill, that was a good time too, even took video of that I think. Thankfully Jeff and Casey took pictures of me on my way down, so I should be able to have it up on the site soon.

After getting back to station I decided the best thing to do would be a dip in the hot tub, glad I did that was a great way to end a great day.

More Pictures

2009-08-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

I've been uploading some pictures and over the weekend I should have a large influx of photos so keep your eye's open. The wild life is coming back, saw some penguins just yesterday, so that means that my photographic output is about to skyrocket quite a bit also.

At this point I have just about two months left until I am standing back in Vermont, I am so looking forward to it, to see all those that I love and miss.

Pictures!

2009-08-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

You should notice now that there are a few selections in the side bar for various picture sets. I'm doing what I can to get as many of them online and available from this site. With the winter coming to an end I'm hoping to get out and take some more pictures to add to what I've all ready taken.

At the end of the month here at Palmer we're going to be doing our own version of Burning Man, called Freezing Man. I have a few ideas for the art I'm going to do and seeing as we are closing in on our little festival to come I need to get moving on them.

Until then enjoy my older photos that I am finally getting around to posting, and be sure to let me know what you think!

DELETE

2009-08-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

Not sure what will show up now, I've deleted the old files off the server, and starting over partly. Should have the old post maybe no pictures in them but I'm trying to clean up and make it easier for me to do. So I'm thinking most of my fixing might be done tomorrow maybe?

Changes

2009-08-16T12:42:00.000-07:00

So I've done some work and with a little luck, comments will be able to happen now. Have a few other things I'm working on and should have an update up later today.

Wow, Long time

2009-07-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

So sorry I haven’t posted for quite some time, have been super busy here. With my last post being from the end of April there has been a few things that have gone on here. Also If you check near the page title I have a new section called “Latest pictures”. I’ll be uploading the pictures from the past few months there, as there is just too many for the blog, and hopefully I can get back to a regular updating schedule.

Here is what’s gone down, as taken from my monthly contributions to the antarctic sun:

Probably the most talked about event on station this past month has had to have been Oprah. Palmer’s own research associate Neil Scheibe was chosen to participate on a segment entitled “Where the Skype are You” during a recent taping of the show. Because Skype is normally banned under the NSF entrob, a great deal of work was required by Palmer’s IT and Communications departments.

To ensure a successful Skype with Oprah, a special laptop was set up to have top priority on the network. A side benefit to this was that the laptop needed to be tested for usability with Skype and Palmer’s internet connection. To do this several station personnel were able to contact and talk with friends and family back home though a service not usually open to use.

In the short time that Skype was able to be used on the laptop beside to call into Oprah, science personnel were able to perform several outreach Skype sessions with schools back stateside. The use of Skype was a great benefit to all who where able to use it for the short time it was available. When it came down to the big day Palmer was lucky enough to have a clear day that enabled Oprah and her viewing audience a view of the glacier behind Palmer.

Appearing with Neil on Oprah was Dr. Bruce Sidell from the O’Brien science group. Both Neil and Bruce did a great job telling Oprah and her audience about Station life and the effects of global warming to the environment around Palmer. About two weeks after taping the show aired to a packed Palmer Lounge. While Skype enabled Neil and Dr. Sidell to talk to Oprah, a Slingbox enabled the station to watch the show.

For the past few months a group of “wasties” lead by Mark Furnish have been hard at work consolidating and getting ready for shipment all of the hazardous waste here on station. For the waste crew, just about every hour of the last months have been spent working outside in and among the mil-vans housing the haz waste, and moving it down to the Palmer pier to be loaded onto the LMG. Once loaded on the LMG, it will make its way northbound to the United States for disposal. All the long hours of work finally paid off with the Gould’s arrival just before mid-winter’s day. Even with the ship being slowed by sea ice and a side trip for some science related repairs, the waste crew along with help from Palmer Logistics managed to complete loading of the waste mil-vans on the pier and finally onto the ship.

On the days preceding the departure of the Gould word had made it’s way to station that the ship might have to leave a day earlier then was planned. It turns out that one of the Chilean stations, O’Higgins, had lost power and would need the Gould to bring them parts. To do this the Gould will need to travel to Frei Base to pick up some equipment that is being flown there from Punta Arenas, then loaded onto the Gould and brought to O’Higgins to unload it.

Before going to Frei base the Gould attempted a landing at Hugo Island to try and repair a gps unit, installed earlier this season. The gps is used to measure ice-sheet loading and the unloading of the the landmass. Unfortunately due to the ice and weather they were unable to land at Hugo for the repairs.

From Hugo the Gould made its way towards Frei Base, only to have to backtrack and take an alternative route due to ice. Eventually the mission would have to be canceled altogether because the pack ice at Maxwell Bay would prevent the Zodiac operations needed to get the replacement parts to the Gould. Because of this the Gould would now make its way to Punta Arenas some 72 hours behind its original schedule.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography day.

2009-04-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

That’s what Sunday was, sadly I was working but still managed to take a few pictures. I did this with my Pentax K20D, with some tin foil plastic and electrical tape.

Long time...

2009-04-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

So I’ve decided, no more daily updates, I’m finding I just don’t have the time or energy to be doing it every day, plus there just isn’t that much going on. My new goal is once or twice a week just to keep things current.

Speaking of keeping things current, the Gould has been gone a good two weeks, there is no science here now so things we’ve been able to concentrate on doing work and getting trained in the rescue teams.

I’m on both Ocean search and rescue, and the SCBA fire team, so the past two weeks have been really busy for me, crazy busy. Plus I am also on the trauma team so that takes up a bit of my time, but I can now take X-rays so that is pretty cool.

I was also lucky enough to see a leopard seal catch a penguin which was beyond cool. So far the wildlife this year has been pretty good.

Fire, man

2009-04-02T16:02:00.000-07:00

Today was fire team change over, got my gear and we had our drill/s. Not too bad was fun but damn was it hot. Both of the drills went good, and had fun doing them, but man did I sweat.

It was also the first trauma team meeting, and i got to learn how to xray and develop the xray, it was pretty cool and fun.

The leopard seals were out in force on the ice today sunning it up as the sun went down.

Boating 2!

2009-04-01T16:57:00.000-07:00

Had one of the best days today and was lucky enough to take my boating two class, sorry no pictures from that. But the highlights included practicing pulling people from the water and getting in myself to get pulled out. Oh did I mention that my suit leaked? Got a little damp but overall not too bad. Tomorrow is Fire team and Trauma team turn over gonna be a busy day.

Work Again

2009-03-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

So I just had my first day of work, went kinda slow but I’m sure it will pick up. I’m busy trying to figure out what is going on sense the guy I’m replacing wasn’t here so I’m trying to figure out what’s going on and the questions I need to ask him when I give him a call.

Also the LMG has left for a short cruise for a few days to do science.

Did I mention the sunsets are nice?

This is PALMER STATION!

2009-03-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

I have arrived and it feels good to be here.

En Route

2009-03-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

We Are well on the way to Palmer we are supposed to dock at the pier around 7:30am tomorrow morning. The weather has calmed down a bit, Even saw a few whales, even took a few pictures of them, just wish that I was a bit closer. Over all it was a good day, and tomorrow I will be on station, can’t wait

Time stands still in a photo.

2009-03-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

Due to some nasty weather that moved into the area we are leaving Deception Island without landing again, this is Antarctica after all and weather changes can be both quick and violent. The winds have picked up so much that we are waiting near the exit of the caldera for them to die down enough to permit safe travel to our next destination. But more of that tomorrow, as I’m not exactly sure what is going on.

Part of me doesn’t want to even get to station, I’d like to just chill on the boat, but I know when I get to station and settle in that I won’t want to get on the boat. I know it was hard to leave my friends last year, so I will be glad to see them in a few days, even if it is just for a week or so. If the first few weeks go smoothly I think I’m gonna see if I can stay for a year, I’d love to see all the wildlife in the summer, would really be awesome.

Also for some reason today, I feel like I’m stuck in a time warp, or at least that time stepped into some gum and is having a hard time moving forward. With all the stuff we’ve been doing the past few days it is no surprise that a day of chilling out is taking so long, to move on.

I'm in a Volcano

2009-03-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

Seriously! So Deception Island is a Volcano that has an opening in it’s side, which lets the ocean in and gives us this awesome place to hang out. Today we’ve moved to a place further inside the caldera to a beach that once was home to a base that was destroyed during the last eruption and now is a pile of stone, wood, and steal. The rocks near here are really neat and range from tiny pebbles to rocks much the same as you see else where, but a good chunk of them are porous.

I spent a good part of the morning checking out the ruins and the rocks, along with the little bit of wildlife that was near by. After lunch was spend laying in a pool of water that was heated by thermal vents from the volcano, very nice. The location of these pools was such that you could stand up take a few steps and you’d be in the colder water. So I spent the afternoon going from the hot water to the cold water, while not as cold as at Palmer it was still decently cold and was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Deception Island pt 1

2009-03-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

Wow where do I start, today was the best part of the trip so far. Around noon time we entered into Deception Island, Whaler’s Bay to be exact, or at least I think it was Whaler’s Bay... Anyways I gave my cool Friend Lilly a hand getting the Zodiac ready and helping people into it once it was in the water. As soon as we landed I knew it would be an awesome time, to one side of the landing zone was a group of penguins, to the other side a group of Fur Seals, and about in the middle a penguin carcass and some only Whaling Buildings.

On the way down here I read the book Whale Warriors which is about the Sea Shepherd group trying to stop the Japanese from whaling of the coast of Antarctica. Was a good book and I wish them the best of luck in stopping the whaling. But with the book fresh in my mind still Seeing and being able to walk around an area where whales have be processed was kinda erie. One of the First things you see when you land is some storage tanks with some out laying buildings closely near by. After the whalers abandoned the buildings around 1930ish I think, the British used it as a base until the late 60’s when the volcano on the island erupted. So all the buildings are in fairly rough shape if they are even standing still. After checking out a few of the buildings and the Fur Seals around them, I decided to make my way down the beach to check out an overlook into a cove on the outside of the island. On the way there I came across a few seals hiding in some old rusted out structures.

In the sand I stumbled across the skeleton of a a whale partially sticking out of the sand. In my mind I was reminded that this was something that happened in the past, until I realized that The Japanese and a few other groups still kill whales. I hope that at some point soon that just like the whaling station on Deception, that all whaling would be a thing of the past.