On Wednesday the 16th of November, I hopped on a plane and headed for Invercargill to begin another subantarctic adventure. I’m beyond excited, and by the time you read this, I’ll be somewhere in the southern ocean feeling at home again! Below is the trip outline – we will have left from Invercargill on the 17th of November, and will do a big loop to visit all the islands before returning to Dunedin by the 4th of December. If all goes to plan, I’ll be on Macquarie Island on the 23rd of November – which is my 23rd birthday! 

Preparations for this trip have been both easier and harder than last time. The trip has somewhat snuck up on me, because I’ve only just finished at University for the year. So the past few weeks have been full of pulling everything that I need together for a trip down south between working and various meetings. In terms of clothing I’m pretty sorted – it’s just a matter of scrubbing my gear squeaky clean before heading to these pristine environments to make sure I don’t transport any weed seeds. I also have to check all the velcro and every nook and cranny in my pockets – all part of the process of keeping these islands safe. 

Planning, packing, re-packing, finding all my pairs of gloves, laying everything out to check through and clean. 

Look at this neat beanie that my brother gave me as an early birthday present! Complete with cheeky Kākāriki!

Thanks to the guys at Nikon NZ, I’m taking some new gear with me to test out in the subantarctic. This includes a Nikon D500, a 200-500mm f/5.6 lens, and a pair of Monarch 8×42 waterproof binoculars, all of which I can’t wait to use in the field. How does this fit in to the system I had going last time? I’ve made a few compromises, but I’m taking more gear than last time as well. Fitting it all in to my Lowepro Dryzone Rover is a challenge – especially the 200-500mm. Luckily I can fit a camera body and a few lenses into my laptop bag as well, which lightens the load! (Note that the sizes here aren’t to scale, I photographed them all separately and put the image together in Photoshop)

Here’s what’s in the bag:

Nikon D500 and Nikon D700 bodies

200-500mm f/5.6

80-400mm f/4.5-6.3

18-200mm f/3.5-5.6

18-35mm f/3.5-4.5

12-24mm f/4

10.5mm f/2.8 Fisheye

Fujifilm X100 (Not pictured – I used it to take the pictures!)

GoPro Hero4 Silver (Not pictured)

This a lot of gear for me. Last time I look two bodies and three lenses – the D700/D300 pair with the bottom three lenses in the image above – the 80-400mm, 18-200mm and 12-24mm. This time I get the opportunity to explore a bit more gear-wise, and it’s going to be fun! Obviously I’ll be using whatever works for particular situations, but I have a bit of a basic strategy planned.

The D500 paired with the 200-500mm is going to be a great on-deck combo for shooting seabirds, with an effective focal length of 750mm. I’m really looking forward to trying these two together, with the amazing autofocus system in the D500 hopefully enabling a greater number of sharp images. 

For zodiac cruising I’ll pair the D500 with either the 80-400mm or the 18-200mm, and have either the 18-35mm or the 80-400mm on the D700. This gives me long and short, with plenty of flexibility, and is also lightweight. 

I’m planning on using the fisheye in the rata forests on Enderby and Auckland Islands to get some cool perspectives of the trees, as well as inside the ship to capture moments at sea. It’s a DX lens, so it’ll go on the D500, and because it’s so small, it’ll be easy to carry around in my bag when I want more options.

For landings, I’ll probably pair the 80-400mm with the D700, and have the 12-24mm on the D500. This is similar to my setup last time, although I often use the 18-200mm instead of the 12-24mm. This time I’d like to focus on getting some wider perspectives, but I’ll always have the 18-200mm on me in case I need it! I’ll also take the 18-35mm with for the D700, in case I want to swap the 80-400mm on to the D500 for more reach, while still having a wide-angle option. Plus, the D500 has no in-built flash like the D700, which I found useful last time for my favourite landscape image on Campbell Island.

My requirement for my gear is that it’s light and easy to carry for long distances. This isn’t really true of the 200-500mm, so I’ll probably be leaving that behind on longer hikes. While I’d love to have it with me for the staggering reach, the 80-400mm is a better tool for that particular job, and is a lot lighter. 

Also in my bag are waterproof covers – an essential in the wet and windy subantarctic region, where sea-spray and rain are constants. I’ve got a small microfibre cloth for keeping my lens elements free from water-droplets. I’m also taking my monopod, so I can have a bit more stability when (hopefully!) getting some video footage of the wildlife. Not forgetting spare batteries and memory cards!

Same as last time, my download/storage setup is a MacBook Air, external card-reader, and three 1TB hard-drives (a primary and two clones). This time I’ll also be taking a cable to connect the D500, as I don’t have a card reader that deals with the new XQD cards yet. 

So that’s the photography side of things! I look forward to sharing photos with you all when I get back.