LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. –
When most people consider a winter vacation, places with sand, surf and sun typically come to mind, where one can escape plummeting temperatures and freezing precipitation -- not Staff Sgt. Barry Loo, 633d Air Base Wing Public Affairs six-year photographer.
After four years of sacrificing and saving money, Sergeant Loo travelled to Antarctica on a 10-day photography expedition to fulfill his dream; capture the grace and beauty of the mostly barren continent on film.
Antarctica is the southernmost landmass in the world, resting at the South Pole. Ninety-eight percent of the continent is covered by ice and on average, the coldest, driest and windiest continent. The mainland is punctuated by towering mountains jutting up through a massive sheet of ice, three miles thick in places. Frozen streams intersect the snow-covered desert terrain, surrounded by chains of small islands in iceberg-rich bays.
"Antarctica is so photogenic because of its weather, topography and the angle of sunlight," said Sergeant Loo. "And penguins," he added with his unique laugh. "There are thousands of penguins."
Sergeant Loo became enamored with the possibility of a trip to Antarctica after attending a photography workshop while stationed at Kunsan Air Base, Korea, in 2006.
"The photos I saw looked like something from another world," he said, reminiscing. "I said then 'I'm goin' there.'"
Sergeant Loo began saving for the trip, adopting cost-cutting measures like renting a tiny apartment and even reducing his transportation from four wheels to two for a year while attending Syracuse University's Military Photojournalism program in New York. He could be seen pushing his bicycle through ice and snow on his way to and from class.
He planned the trip for December, knowing that a visit to Antarctica is only possible during the austral summer, occurring during the northern hemisphere's winter season. Winters in Antarctica are much too harsh for expeditions, with interior temperatures plunging as low as -130 degrees Fahrenheit and winds reaching 40 miles per hour. Temperatures during the austral summer average a more hospitable 50 degrees Fahrenheit, Sergeant Loo said.
$10,000 later, Sergeant Loo was on his way to Norfolk International Airport to catch a flight to Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of Argentina, where he began his cruise aboard a converted research vessel around the icy continent of Antarctica. The cruise carried him and 80 other passengers through one of the most turbulent waterways on earth.
The waters were so rough through Drake's Passage, Sergeant Loo said he tried to sleep as he held onto a bar to avoid falling out of bed. "It was my first time underway on a vessel," he said with a smirk. "I got a little sea sick."
Using animated gestures, Sergeant Loo recounted visiting several small islands via inflatable rafts and eventually the continental mainland. The most memorable sight from the adventure was riding into a bay filled with icebergs, passing by close enough to reach out and touch them, he said.
Sergeant Loo captured more than 3,000 images on his trip, using a digital SLR and a large format view camera, a traditional film camera using 4-by-5 inch sheets of black and white film.
"Antarctica is by far the most awesome place I've ever seen," he said with a suddenly serious tone. "I've traditionally been a 'dirt and rocks' photographer, and this certainly expanded my horizons."
No stranger to travelling, Sergeant Loo has been to China and Australia, and even backpacked for three and a half months through Europe, making stops in Amsterdam, Germany and Austria.
"I'll always be travelling to seek out nature's most beautiful sights and capture them," he said, as he expressed an interest in visiting Ireland and Africa in the future.