Frozen frames from the South Pole

It was midnight. The earth was white, and the skies, amber. In came waddling a “tuxedo gang” to check out what the newcomers in polar parkas were doing with gauges and funnels on the fast ice. These curious penguins were the the first picture Dr Priyankar Kumar Datta clicked.

Datta, who was a doctor on board the Antarctica expedition 2015-2016, returned as its unofficial photographer with a bank of photographs that made lugging about 15 kilograms of equipment worth all the sweat, he tells us.

His photographs were put up at the recent National Polar Science Seminar, an annual meeting of “Antarcticans” in Goa, and have received rave reviews. A senior resident doctor, Critical Care, AIIMS, Delhi, he shares his experience:

What was your first impression of Antarctica?

There is no first visual of the continent; it's a gradual unveiling. A few days on the sea, half way from Cape Town to Antarctica, we saw the first iceberg. Then came chips of floating ice, called pack ice. Gradually these pieces got bigger, and formed sheets called fast ice. These sheets of ice lead up to the continent, and your ship breaks its way through it. This is usually the longest part of the voyage; it took us about 12 days from here to the continent's coast.

How challenging is photography on the continent?

The place is so beautiful that every shot comes out great, no matter the type of camera. The sky is always a brilliant melange of colours, even at midnight. Perhaps the only challenge was time-lapse. The first time I set up my camera, we relied on everything from stones to ropes to ensure the wind doesn't blow it away. It was on an island we'd arrived on by riding a chopper for some scientific work. We were to leave the camera behind and return the next day. I didn't know if I was going to find my camera still standing. Thankfully, there was no blizzard that night, and I got my first time-lapse on the continent.

What does being part of the contingent entail?

I was mostly treating seasickness during the sea voyage, and minor sniffles and niggles through the expedition. But, over there, every member is expected help out. I enjoyed being handy to teammate Dr Ragavendra Samy, who was there to study the effect of yoga on people working in cold conditions. A few times, I worked as his phlebotomist. Then one time, I assisted a researcher from the Wildlife Institute in an autopsy of a penguin who died of a natural cause. Out there, you make yourself useful as per you technical know-how.

Advice for future expedition members?

We overestimate the hardship on the continent. Over the years, things have improved. You may expect a very cold place with hard living conditions, but you experience that for only a few moments during the three-and-half months. The base and the quarters are hi-tech and temperature-controlled. For doctors who take the voyage, I advice them to be adept at trauma management. There's a lot of cargo handling. In icy conditions, people often lose balance and slip. And yes, don't take shortcuts. One time, we were headed to a small laboratory on one of the islands with heavy equipment. We had to circumvent a lake. I decided to cross over the lake, because it was a shorter route. Ice gave away, and I fell in. While I was okay, it gave every one a major scare, and I was grounded for two days because of the incident.

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