A King penguin in a stream. I was practicing my "giraffe" leg bend to get low with this penguin who was standing very still and did not seem to mind the phot...
King
Gold Harbor, South Georgia - 07 Jan 2026 See on Google Maps
While in Antarctica and South Georgia we were not allowed to place anything on the ground except our boots. This meant no laying down or kneeling we were even told not to squat!! so How to get low enough to photograph the little penguins? The technique we used ws the "giraffe" - we would spread our legs as far apart as we could and then lean over and look in the screen on the back of the camera, tilted up, to compose the picture. It was difficult and took some practice.
This particular shot was difficult as it was in a small pond so the camera is almost in the water. The King penguins were very accommodating - standing still and allowing me to take several pictures improving my technique.
Looking for a healthy depth of focus to capture detail on the mountains, the aperture is set to f13. Plenty of time to take the picture still had a rather quick shutter speed at ISO 160. You can see how close I was as the focal length is only 24mm.
Cal Holman Posted on 23 Oct 2026