Richard is a freelance travel photographer & Canon Master who has captured incredible images of people and places around the world for more than 35 years. His work has been published worldwide in books, magazines, newspapers, brochures, calendars, posters, cards and websites; from the size of a stamp right up to a tarpaulin covering a 53-foot truck trailer!

He has also published 12 books including five editions of Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Photography, was featured in the television documentary Tales By Light (available on Netflix) and is a Travel Photography Scholarship Mentor for World Nomads. Richard has won numerous awards over the course of his career but is most proud of gaining a Master of Photography and one gold bar from the Australian Institute of Professional Photography.

Richard is joining us as a special guest on the following expeditions:

• Across the Antarctic Circle (ANC009S), departing 24 February 2024.
• Costa Rica and The Panama Canal (CRP004G), departing 19 April 2024.

Peter Eastway is a contemporary Australian photographer who is known internationally for his landscape and travel work. A practicing professional photographer, he shoots editorially and works selectively in advertising and family portraiture, two diverse ends of the professional sphere.

Peter has been involved in photographic magazine publishing for over 30 years, establishing his own title, Australia’s Better Photography Magazine, in 1995. It is now one of Australia’s leading photography magazines.

Peter’s work has been published and exhibited internationally (USA, UK, Japan, Germany, Greece, India, New Zealand and Australia).

He was the author of the Lonely Planet’s Guide to Landscape Photography. His photography has recently featured on the cover of the Lonely Planet’s guide to Australia, in articles in the Qantas in flight magazine, and in an Apple television commercial. And he has worked with Phase One cameras, researching and promoting its high-end medium format cameras and Capture One raw processing software.

Peter Eastway is an AIPP Grand Master of Photography, a Fellow and an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography, and a Fellow and Honorary Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography. He won the 1996 and 1998 AIPP Australian Professional Photographer of the Year Award.

Join Peter on upcoming voyages in Antartica:

• Spirit of Antarctica, departing 9 January 2024
• South Georgia & Antarctic Odyssey, departing 19 January 2024
• In Shackleton’s Footsteps, departing 16 March 2025

Michael is a Freelance Travel Photographer and was born on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, where his love for photography and the environment was ignited at an early age. Michael has worked with a number of global clients, with his images being used in various forms of media.

Michael's love of travelling has seen him explore seven continents and over 50 countries, naturally with a camera in hand. He specialises in landscape and wildlife photography with a particular interest in photographing the Polar Regions.

Michael believes that there is no greater travel experience than exploring the remote Polar Regions, and loves getting off the beaten track with a small group of like-minded passengers aboard the Polar Pioneer. He especially enjoys sharing his passion for photography and assisting others to capture images of these incredible scenes.

Michael also has a Bachelor of Science and is a Director of one of Australia's leading Environmental Consultancies, delivering innovative and practical environmental management solutions for a wide variety of clients.

With a passion for exploring the world and capturing its beauty through his lens, Jamie is a talented Writer and Photographer hailing from Scotland. He has visited all seven continents and over 50 countries, and earned the 2020 Consumer Travel Writer of the Year award. Jamie’s work has been featured in prestigious publications including the New York Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, National Geographic Traveller, Outside and Financial Times. He has journeyed to Antarctica eight times, spent a week in Svalbard while a horror film was being shot, and has stories to tell from just about everywhere in between. His favourite destination so far is South Georgia for its extraordinary history and unpredictable nature.

Always funny and invariably poignant, make time hear some of Jamie’s tales on your expedition, and learn a trick or two on capturing your best photos in his photography lectures.

Adrian is a world-renowned action and adventure photographer who specialises in photographing the wildlife and landscapes of the polar regions while being immersed in the planet’s most precious and provocative environments. His commercial work has been used by a host of travel, sport, lifestyle and expedition publications across the globe, and he has consistently worked with the athletes on the World Surf Tour and UCI World Cycling events.

Adrian is committed to assisting others develop the confidence to succeed at their passions through his high-performance strategy consulting company. He is currently working on a book that will explores the inner journey to fulfilling your full potential.

When not working, you can find Adrian watching a Liverpool Football Club match, sailing a yacht to an undisclosed destination, swimming laps or trying to discover which tequila accompanies the world’s best fish taco.   

A lifelong passion for understanding natural world drove Max to study Biology at university. After completing his studies, he started his global education, spending four years doing field work in the most remote places he could find.

During his travels, he always had his camera within reach to capture the beautiful places he found himself in, and striving to develop his photography skills. After becoming a National Geographic Certified photo instructor, this became his main vocation, and he began guiding photography trips around the world.

Max brings a positive attitude to every expedition, and relishes making people smile as much as he loves capturing these happy moments. What he loves most about working on expedition ships is being surrounded by a world-class Expedition Team that is always helping him grow and learn.  

As a child growing up in the 80s, Pia was fascinated by film and the power of images. Today, she still loves the role photography can play in creating awareness and inspiring social change. She asked for her first camera at age 9, started taking photography classes in high school and went on to study a degree in Audio-Visual Production and Photography. After graduating, Pia started her global education, travelling everywhere from Patagonia to Sri Lanka to the polar regions, working as a portrait and documentary photographer.

She has spent the last decade sharing the technical and creative photographic tips she has learned with travellers. For the past five years, she has tilted her practice to more collaborative and sustainable projects in areas of human rights issues, working for NGOs like UNICEF. 

Scott Portelli is an international award-winning wildlife, nature and underwater photographer. He’s a member of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) and is regarded as a leading professional in his field. Scott has spent thousands of hours in remote locations across the globe filming and photographing nature, wildlife, the underwater environment and wild places.

Scott has spent over a decade working in the polar regions with a focus on Antarctica, the Subantarctic and Artic regions, producing a unique portfolio of fine art photography that showcases the intricate environment and its intriguing inhabitants. Working in extreme conditions, Scott’s photography provides a rarely seen glimpse above and below the surface in some of the harshest places on the planet.

As a professional nature, wildlife, underwater and aerial photographer, Scott spends a lot of time travelling the world to remote destinations in search of some of the most amazing creatures on the planet. For Scott, it is about the journey, bringing an idea to life by capturing a moment in time or by evoking an emotion. Each image has a unique story that is usually a very intimate moment that Scott may have shared with the subject.

“To create interesting concepts, it sometimes involves me immersing myself in an environment in order to research the location, subject matter and what opportunities may present themselves. I once spent two months on the back of a snow mobile in Baffin Island, Canadian Arctic in minus 37 degrees just to do a reconnaissance of the region for a series of photos I wanted to produce. In the end, I love what I do and I love sharing the natural world through photography.”

Scott was awarded at the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year in London in 2016, announced National Winner of the Sony World Photography Awards 2016 and Winner at Travel Photographer of the Year 2015. More recently, he was awarded winner in the Animal Behaviour Category at the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year ANZANG 2017, winner in the Underwater Category of the Asferico International Nature Photography Awards 2018 and runner up in the Behaviour Category at Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019. His conservation documentary also took out two awards at the prestigious French Underwater Film Festival in Marseille.

Scott's other notable awards include:

• 3^rd Prize - National Geographic Travel Photo Contest - Nature Category 2019
• Winner - 13^th Annual Black & White Spider Awards 2018
• Highly Honoured - Nature's Best, Windland Smith Rice International Awards 2018
• Winner - Sony World Photography Awards 2016

An accredited licensed RPAS/UAV Pilot, Scott has worked on aerial projects for some of Australia’s most sought-after tourism destinations.

Scott runs photography workshops and lectures to show enthusiasts and experts alike the best way to get the most out of their photography. On his Polar tours he specialises in Nature & Wildlife photography bringing the best tips and techniques for photographing in challenging locations.