"Home of the Flying Eagles"
Photos of people are often good from anywhere and everywhere in the world. With regard to landscapes, with or without wildlife, it helps to have some natural beauty with which to work. I have photographed Mount Everest from an airplane as it pierced majestically through the clouds, and filmed black rhino from the back of an elephant several hours a day for nearly a week in the grasslands of southern Nepal. I have snapped photos of the pyramids in several places on two occasions (1998 and 2000), and scenes from the top of Mount Sinai in Egypt (The locals only call it Moses Mountain). I spent several rolls of film just before and after the sun peeked over the highest edge of the Grand Canyon in the U.S. I have burned film from one end of Norway to the other, especially in the beautiful Lofoten Islands / Vestfjord Straits area on its western coast. All of the locations were breathtaking places. However, if God made a more awesome place on this earth than where I am right now, in Patagonia, specifically the glaciers scattered around Beagle Canal, he saved it for just himself to see. Of the fifty-plus countries I have photographed, nothing even comes close to this place in beauty, in my opinion.
This morning at daybreak, October 31, 2006, I sit here, sipping strong, hot coffee, as the ship eases through the Beagle and Murray Channels, in what is very early spring in this part of the world. The temperature hovers at 30 degrees F. I am popping photo after photo of pure sublime beauty. I am aware that I just turned 66 years old. It would have been a shame for me to have missed all this, considering how much I love this kind of place. If my photos do not do it justice, I have only myself to blame. The scenery is here! (An aside) Actually, it is very easy to blow great photo opportunities. Six years ago I took 180 shots (5 rolls of 36 slides per roll) from a shallow- submerged submarine in the Red Sea- one of the premier underwater coral and wildlife spots in the world- and not one photo was really a “keeper”. That keeps me humble with regard to my skills.
Frank Heatherly
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