Entering Paradise, Antarctica, 2004 by Phil Douglis

Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Eleven: Aspects of Antarctica – a travel photo-essay > Entering Paradise, Antarctica, 2004

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06-JAN-2004

Entering Paradise, Antarctica, 2004

To make this shot of our cruise ship at anchor in Paradise Harbor, I landed on Waterboat Point and photographed a solitary Gentoo Penguin gazing intently at this huge floating hotel. This is first is a series of three close-up photographs of Gentoos in this essay, and no two of them alike in either content or form. In a photo-essay, redundant picture usage must be avoided at all costs. Each and every shot must make its own point and make it well.

Canon PowerShot G5
1/1250s f/4.5 at 25.1mm full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto

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Phil Douglis		10-Jul-2008 21:41
You are very kind, Bartosz. By "level" I assume you are referring to my low vantage point, which brings the camera down to the level of the penguin. I was very careful to position the penguin so that the water is behind it, and the head does not touch the ship itself. Part of this picture's success is the tiny bit of space I tried to leave between the head and the ship. And that all comes back to my camera position or vantage point or "level" as you call it. Thanks.

Bartosz Kotulski		10-Jul-2008 12:30
wonderful level. great composition. well done. all the best for you.vote

Guest		13-Nov-2006 14:55
So cute!

Phil Douglis		10-Aug-2006 17:47
Thanks, Zandra, for taking this image so personally. The more personal context we can bring to a photo, the more it may mean to us. The fact that you are undergoing a major life transition right now makes you see your own vulnerability in this scene. You empathize with the penguin and the intrusion of the big boat into its distant world. It is so large and the penquin so small. You see yourself as being just as small and vulnerable as you leave your friends, your country, your life, for a new adventure in a distant place. Good luck to you, Zandra, and thanks for relating so personally to this image.

Guest		03-Aug-2006 11:04
Who is watching who? You watching the pinguin, the pinguin watching the people on the boat watching the pinguin...or maybe you... This makes me thing of what an intrusion we are doing to their land. The one alone and isolated pinguin against teh rest of the world. In a way i can identify myself with the pinguin here. Me against the rest of the world. Isn'tnt that a feelign which at times has come across us all. This i think potraits the very essence of that feeling. How small we can feel and how big a threat can feel. How vourneble we are when we are alone. This touches my hart Phil, the hart of that litle lonely kid that is in there, and who shows her face from time to time. Right now for example, when i am in the process of leaving everything i know for something unknown as i will move across the Atlantic. This is how i feel sometimes when i amlaying alone in my bed and teh thoughts are runnign around in my head. Teh world seem so big and at tiems scarry.

Phil Douglis		24-Jun-2005 19:58
Thanks, Alex, for your observations on animal consciousness. When we see this boat through the eyes of the penguin, the point is made and the human imagination takes it from there.

Alex		22-Jun-2005 19:46
haha, yes, my first thought too was that's funny... wait a minute....someone has to be taking the photo! I had to read the comments to make sure I wasn't the only one. Nice shot, I really find the subjet of animal conciousness facinating. But to be boring he can't really think much of the boat anyway...can he? When I see photos like these emphasizing either great size, smallness or even great detail (and not just photos, but in person) I always think of the subjects history, how it was made, everyone involved and what it has been through. Thanks.

Phil Douglis		14-Nov-2004 20:37
I like the way this picture has stimulated your imagination here, Zebra.

Guest		14-Nov-2004 17:20
It is very difficult to imagine what this penguin was really thinking of,when he saw an immense ship out of his imagination load so many people who were not belong to this continent at all.The image inspires me to think that an Indian was looking at a huge ship with hundreds of first immigrants to America in A.D.15,he did not think of his fate would be change by this big ship.A wonderful work!

Guest		31-Oct-2004 14:48
"Boy, what those Carnival Cruise people won't do for a Bud Ice Beer."

Phil Douglis		04-May-2004 16:42
The "contrast" you note is actually scale and social incongruity. The penguin is very small, and the ship is huge. The penguin is a bird, yet it seems to be reacting as a human being. The flipper hanging by his side is very expressive -- I made this photo for both its whimsy and its social commentary.

Lara S		04-May-2004 16:01
I love the "contrast (for a lack of a better word) of the small penguin next to the big ship. Gotta wonder what he's thinking about. Is he yearning to hop on, or is wondering: "what will this monster do to my ecosystem, Lord?"

Phil Douglis		12-Feb-2004 23:36
You saw what you wanted you to see -- a small bird and big ship. Only you first interpreted it as a send-off, rather than a welcome. (The caption says "entering", not "leaving," paradise.) And then you saw a more profound message here -- a penguin standing and watching helplessly as man enters its world. Still a paradise? It depends upon the point of view, doesn't it?

Guest		12-Feb-2004 06:27
The first idea came up to me is...a Send-off. I totally forgot that you could not be on the boat at that moment, Phil, and you would become Robinson Version 2004 in Antarctica according to the idea! Well, the feeling was just like what the penguin was presenting: frozen like a stone, completely in a daze...a Huge question mark occupied the brain: still a paradise? Thanks God it was an arrival, however the same question in this little host's mind.

Phil Douglis		28-Jan-2004 22:53
Thanks, Tom, for joining this dialogue here on pbase. Over the last twenty years, you and I have had many of them. Photography can indeed be entertaining. And humor can give us valuable insights into ourselves. Thanks for enjoying this shot with us!

Tom Treuter		28-Jan-2004 22:04
OK, ok now I feel like you guys are piling on. This is a wonderfully fanciful image. And it is fun to attribute human emotions to an animals' behavior. I chuckled. You're off the hook, Phil. This one's a homerun. I should know better than to critique my master.

Phil Douglis		28-Jan-2004 21:02
Thanks, Cecilia, for this comment, which you posted only hours after I received an email from a long time friend, Detroit photojournalist Tom Treuter, suggesting that I use my warped sense of humor more freqently in my travel photography. I will be sure to send him a link to your comment, proving that at least somebody out there thinks my pictures can be amusing! Your comment also reinforces a point that I have been stressing for years in my workshops -- humor and incongruity are one and the same. If I did not choose to display this image as an important example of the workings of a photographic essay, I would certainly have used it in my gallery on Incongruity. This image is a deliberate parody -- the sole penguin gapes, as you say, at the ship, just as we gape at it. As you pointed out, it could even be fodder for a cartoon. (I would consider sending this shot to Gary Larson as a possible cartoon subject, but I can't. He retired in 1994.)

Cecilia Lim		28-Jan-2004 19:10
Phil, this is exactly like a page off the cartoons! But amazingly, this is real and you have captured just the right moment! A truly funny moment. Often, we are the ones gaping at the animals, but here, the situation is reversed! The ship also looks very much out of place in this ice-&-penguin kingdom, strongly suggesting that it is merely a visitor. I haven't heard you talk about humour in photography, but I can see form this example that it can be one of the by-products of incongruity which certainly makes the image all the more appealing to the viewer.

Phil Douglis		26-Jan-2004 22:47
And that was exactly the point I was trying to make with this picture.

Carol E Sandgren		26-Jan-2004 06:16
What do penguins think of us humans and all of our silly ships and hardware? Oh noooo, not MORE tourists to entertain!

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