Tuesday 3 December 2013

Exposing Penguins

Exposing Penguins - 3rd December

"My penguins have zebras on them!" This is perhaps not a sentence you might expect to hear anywhere, let alone in the Antarctic. Unfortunately, I have banded it about far more than I would have liked today as I have struggled to fight the sunlight and successfully expose the penguins I am filming. It is very tricky to film a black and white animal in a very bright white environment. Areas of the image I am capturing that are overexposed are shown with stripes through my camera lens - these are the zebras I have referred to. It is very frustrating and I have been experimenting with all sorts of lenses and settings to try and get the perfect image. Maybe a cloud is all I need...

Egg-cellent Progress

Meanwhile, across Port Lockroy, penguins are proliferating. Every time the team move around the island, we see new eggs in the stoney nests that have been constructed so rapidly in the last couple of weeks. We even discovered one adult sitting on an egg without a nest and are exercising even more extreme caution around all penguins so as not to indadvertedly cause them to desert eggs - it only takes a matter of seconds for a wily skua or sheathbill to swoop and destroy.

Fit for a Fid

One of the many fascinating books available for sale in the Port Lockroy shop is Fit for a Fid. This is an authentic BAS cookbook from 1957. After the success of Turkey Surprise, my confidence was at an all-time-high when I embraced the Fit for a Fid challenge. Flicking through the book, I was delighted to discover dishes beyond those containing penguin, shag and seal and eventually decided to attempt salmon madras as described on page 13 of the book. No substitutions allowed, only ingredients that would have been available at the time the original book was produced - dried onion, curry powder and tinned salmon as well as butter, water and rice. Half an hour of entertainment was provided for the team as I attempted to follow the instructions provided, master an oven and understand rice. The final result was gobbled down by all present and all are still standing.

2 comments:

  1. I was concerned initalially when I misread this post and thought it was called exploding penguins! Phew...xx

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  2. We were concerned initially when we saw the photo of you in the kitchen - glad to hear everyone survived, phew. The cooking lessons weren't in vain!
    Beer, pizza and movies on Pelagic tonight, the Famous Five are all invited!
    Dave and Bertie

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