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The International Polar Year (IPY) initiative 2007-09 is the fourth of its kind – the previous ones taking place in 1882-83, 1932-32 and 1957-58. To mark this important work, French photographer Christian Morel plans to photograph around 200 scientific projects during the IPY and he will be reporting regularly for CPN from the Arctic and Antarctic. The IPY examines a wide range of physical, biological and social research topics, such as how the ice caps and climate are changing, and what affect this is having on the inhabitants of these icy frontiers. With the backing of Canon, and funding from various organisations, Christian has launched ‘Our Polar Heritage’, a photographic project aimed at increasing public awareness of the work of scientists in the polar regions.

Blog 4: Greenland - July 2008

A few weeks ago I spent 18 days back in Greenland, this time in the North West, documenting the setting up of a new camp for a project called NEEM, the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling. It’s an international ice core research project aimed at retrieving an ice core reaching back through the second most recent interglacial epoch of the Ice Age, the Eemian, which began about 132,000 years ago. The project’s logistics are managed by the Centre for Ice and Climate in Denmark, but there are 13 countries involved.

To get there I had to fly to Copenhagen, then Kangerlussuaq in Greenland and then on a US ski equipped C-130 Hercules to the NEEM site about two and a half hours flight time to the north.

It was about –15°C which is not too cold, but it was also very windy and it’s more difficult to change lenses. So I found it was better not to change lenses. The temperature can change very quickly in this area at this time of year; it can go from –5°C to –15°C in a few hours and any moisture can immediately become ice. So tended to keep the EF14mm f/2.8L USM, the EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM and the EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM on the three EOS-1Ds Mark II cameras. I was also very impressed by the number of pictures I could take with the batteries on the EOS-1Ds Mark II, despite the cold.

One of the problems I had was simply moving around in order to get different viewpoints. The ground where the scientists are working can be firm, but if you want to move more than 20-30m away it becomes very soft. It can take time, and in that time the people are not necessarily where you want them to be. It can also be very tiring.

There were 32 people at the camp when I was there and the living conditions were very comfortable and warm with good food and drink. They were just setting up the camp and there will be very few people from the media allowed there this year, so it was good to be there so early in the project, which will last for about four years.

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Blog 3: Bering Sea - May 2008

I recently spent 13 days on the US Coast Guard’s icebreaker, Healy, in the Bering Sea. We set sail from the Aleutian Islands off the South-West coast of Alaska, from a town called Dutch Harbor one the largest fishing ports in the US. There were about 40 crew members, and about 30 scientists on board as we headed North towards St. Lawrence Island.

The sea there is one of the shallowest in the world, around 60m deep, creating a unique ecosystem. In this area you get both sea animals like walruses and grey whales, and land animals such as foxes. The question that the scientists were asking was what effect global warming had had on this benthic (ocean floor) flora and fauna.

Some scientists were counting the animals, others were analysing the mud at the bottom of the sea, and still more were studying the algae on the underside of the ice. These algae are the beginning of the food chain for this eco-system and this is where a lot of the ocean currents begin because of the sinking of the ‘heavy water’.

It’s a very special thing to walk on the ice in the Bering Sea, but we had to go through a very strict briefing before we could leave the ship. Sometimes the ice is 1m thick and but it can also be as little as 50cm.

It was about –25ºC, which was no problem for the camera (EOS-1Ds Mark II), but the change in temperature and difference in humidity between outside and the cabins can lead to condensation on the lenses. Having worked in cold climates, I’m very aware of this potential problem. I have a special bag to keep the equipment in and before going on the ice I left the equipment outside my cabin (where it was about 0ºC) to cool down slowly, and vice versa when I returned to the ship.

As a photographer, one thing you have to take care of in these temperatures is how you breathe. It’s crucial not to breathe on the viewfinder. I had to keep turning my head away to breathe before taking pictures.

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Blog 2: Ivituut, Greenland - August 2007

This location was quite difficult to get to. I was in the south of Greenland, in the area of Ivituut, north of the city of Narssasuaq, to document the setting up of an automatic station that monitors carbon dioxide and oxygen levels in the North Atlantic region. Led by the Institut Polaire Français, it is part of a large international project called Polarcat whose aim is to better understand the relationship between the ocean and the atmosphere.

From my home in France, I had to fly to Narssasuaq, via Copenhagen, then take a ship, and then find a fisherman to take me by boat to the Ivituut fjord. It took four days in total, but that's not unusual.

When I got there the light was not great and the weather was very grey. In those situations you have to think more about the framing of the image, how you use flash and the shutter speed, and what is going on in the picture. But this will always be a problem with this polar project. It rained a lot in Greenland, but I had no problem with the equipment.

I try to use as many of the lenses as possible so I get lots of different angles and views, as I plan to stage an exhibition at the end of the project.

And I can tell you that Greenland can really be green! It was the end of the summer though, which is a good time to see the northern lights.

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Blog 1: Abisko, Sweden - July 2007

My first blog for CPN comes from Abisko national park in Swedish Lapland, located 250km north of the Arctic Circle. In July 2007, I travelled to Abisko to meet a team of scientists – who together form the ABACUS consortium – to record their research aimed at improving the understanding of the controls on carbon, water and energy exchange between arctic terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. They are there to answer two big questions: How vulnerable are Arctic carbon stores to global warming? And how will changes in Arctic regions affect the rest of the planet?...

People think of the polar regions as only ice, but this is not so. You can see from the images that Abisko is a very green place in the summer months. It even contains forests.
There was no problem using the photographic equipment, in terms of temperature, at least. In winter, though, it would be very different conditions with temperatures dropping below -20°C.
But one problem I did have was that because there were so many mosquitoes I couldn’t change lenses as often as I’d have liked. I didn’t want to get mosquitoes on my CMOS sensor!

So for this trip I used three EOS-1Ds Mark II bodies because I knew I would have to limit the number of times I changed a lens. When I did have to change a lens I had to be very careful and do it under my jacket or wait to make sure there was no wind. At the beginning the scientists weren’t quite sure what I was there for. I went everywhere with them asking them to do this or that, but by the end when I showed them the images on my computer, they understood what I was there for and that I really was a photographer!

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Christian’s polar equipment:

Bodies:
3 x EOS-1Ds Mark II

Lenses:
EF14mm f/2.8L USM
EF20mm f/2.8 USM
EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM
EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM
EF28-70mm f/2.8L USM
EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM
EF300mm f/4L IS USM
EF135mm f/2L USM
EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
TS-E90mm f/2.8

Accessories:
Extender EF1.4x II
2x Canon Speedlite 580EX
Batteries
CF and SD Sandisk Extreme IV memory cards
Canon Media Storage M80 external drives
Apple Powerbook G4 laptop
Portable studio flashes
Special continuous lights
Some filters and polarisers
Gitzo and Manfrotto tripods