Travels and Stories
by Michael Frye | Apr 26, 2026 | Travels and Stories
Sunbeams and the Colorado River, Grand Canyon NP, Arizona
Tomorrow I’ll begin another raft trip through the Grand Canyon. This will be my fourth journey down the canyon, and third for Visionary Wild. And once again my co-instructor will be the fabulous Jerry Dodrill – a wonderful photographer and teacher who knows the Grand Canyon intimately.
My previous trips were either eight- or ten-days long. This one will take twelve days, which I’m really excited about. The more time in the canyon the better!
Prior to arriving here in Flagstaff, Claudia and I did a short road trip through Utah and Arizona, finishing at the south rim of the Grand Canyon on Thursday and Friday nights. It’s always fun to see the canyon from the rim before going down into the heart of it. The perspectives from the top and bottom are very different, but all the perspectives on this canyon are beautiful.
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by Michael Frye | Mar 29, 2026 | Light and Weather, Travels and Stories
Snow-capped spires, Antarctica. 158mm, 1/500 sec. at f/11, ISO 500.
It’s taken me a long time to go through all my photos from our January trip to Antarctica – all 41,000 of them! I previously posted images of natural ice sculptures, and penguins. But this time I thought I’d focus on wider landscapes, and the beautiful Antarctic light.
Antarctic light is special. When we arrived in early January the sun rose at 2:45 a.m., and at an azimuth of about 160 degrees. That’s just a tad to the east of due south (180 degrees). Then the sun carved a low path through the sky to the east, north, and west, finally setting (at midnight) just a little bit west of where it rose, at an azimuth of about 200 degrees. It never got truly dark.
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by Michael Frye | Feb 8, 2026 | Travels and Stories, Wildlife Photography
Porpoising chinstrap penguins, Antarctica. 355mm, 1/1500 sec at f/16, ISO 5000. I needed a fast shutter speed to freeze motion, and a small aperture to get all the penguins in focus. That required pushing the ISO quite high, but I can deal with the noise (Adobe’s Denoise did a great job), while I can’t fix a blurry photo.
Penguins are so much fun to watch. I need penguins in my life every day. I think everyone does. Luckily I can watch Claudia’s videos whenever I need a penguin fix.
It’s super fun watching penguins at their nests, with the adults performing displays and calls, stealing rocks from neighboring nests, and feeding their adorable chicks. But it’s also highly entertaining to watch them away from their nests – especially as they’re porpoising out of the water, jumping ashore, or leaping into the water en masse.
Penguins are fast and agile swimmers. Gentoo penguins are thought to be the fastest swimmers, reaching speeds of up to 22 mph. (This video shows how fast and agile they are underwater.)
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by Michael Frye | Feb 1, 2026 | Travels and Stories, Wildlife Photography
Southern giant petrel chasing a chinstrap penguin, Antarctica (it didn’t catch it)
On one of our zodiac cruises in Antarctica we visited a large chinstrap penguin colony, where penguins gathered on a black-sand beach as they were coming and going. We couldn’t land on this beach due to rough surf and high penguin activity, but our zodiac drivers hovered just offshore, giving us a great view.
The penguins attracted southern giant petrels. As you can see from the accompanying photos and video, giant petrels are big birds – larger than the chinstraps – with a six- to seven-foot wingspan. Petrels are quite aggressive, and will sometimes hunt penguins. They usually can’t catch a healthy adult penguin, but can catch chicks, or a sick or injured adult.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 22, 2026 | Travels and Stories
Icy glow, Antarctica. We were lucky to find this beautiful backlight catching the tops of these ice fingers.
Claudia and I just returned from Antarctica. This was our second trip to the bottom of the world, and it was just as amazing and wonderful as the first. On both trips I tried to make photographs that capture something of what it’s like to be there, but even my best images can’t convey the actual experience. It’s truly like traveling to a different planet.
Once again I was teaching for Visionary Wild aboard our small, chartered ship, the Hans Hansson. This time my co-instructor was Visionary Wild founder and owner Justin Black, and we shared the experience with a wonderful, fun group of participants, along with the ship’s small, stellar crew. Most of the crew members were the same as last year, so it was great to see familiar faces, and they couldn’t have been nicer.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 8, 2026 | Travels and Stories
Chinstrap penguins, Antarctica
Claudia and I are back in Antarctica! We’re so happy to be in this amazing place again, and share the experience with our wonderful group of participants, along with the stellar crew aboard the Hans Hansson. And a big thanks to my co-instructor Justin Black, the founder of Visionary Wild, who did such an great job organizing this special trip designed for photographers.
We’ve had some wonderful light, and fantastic encounters with wildlife. Passing through the Gerlache Straight two days ago we saw a huge concentration of humpback whales – probably 50 or so within a few square miles.
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