Another year full of adventures has flown by!
It is time for the annual review of my work from the previous year as a commercial and editorial photographer who specializes in journalism, travel and lifestyle throughout the world.
The fireworks that rung in the new year on January 1, 2023 were in the form of the miraculous glow worm caves at Waitomo on the North Island of New Zealand. Although the picture resembles the night sky, it is actually bioluminescent fungus gnats that dwell in humid caves and are endemic to this area. I photographed this while working as a National Geographic Expert on a trip to New Zealand, where we started exploring in the far north of the country and then made our way down to Queenstown on the South Island, stopping at various locations in between.
My next assignment in February took me down to Antarctica to begin my 7th season working on the Great White Continent. Since it was late in the summer when I arrived, we had great views of penguin chicks molting their natal down and leopard seals hunting just off shore of the bird colonies.
This trip netted one of the most random experiences I have ever had – I bumped into a friend while in Antarctica at Cuverville Island. I met Matty Smith for the first time in 2015 while on assignment in Australia. He is an amazing underwater photographer. You can see his work here. He was on a sailboat at this island and saw our ship. When he came on shore, he walked up to me and said hello. It was crazy – what a way to randomly run into someone!
My next assignment in April took me to the equatorial Pacific, beginning in Fiji and ending in Tahiti with many stops in between. Beqa is one of my new favorite places. On this island the local tribes still practice the art of fire walking but what I found truly inspiring was their education system. The schools emphasized love and respect, visible in the signage around their small schoolhouses and libraries. Of course, no trip to this area of the world would be complete without ample amounts of local fruit and a look at one of the most prized vanilla beans on the planet.
Then, I took a quick trip to Florida to take a class from Seth Resnick, my digital guru since the inception of Lightroom. I try to stay current on all things digital and Seth gave us an enlightening tutorial of Lightroom’s new, AI powered develop module. It may sound like a technical nightmare, but it was great to learn about how to control your creative decisions using the tools in this powerful software program.
In May, my husband and I went to Maui for a surf vacation, which was simply lovely.
One of my ongoing projects has been working with Matt Lightner at his restaurant, ōkta, in McMinnville, Oregon. He and I have been working together for years and I am thrilled that when he returned back to Oregon he called me in to photograph his amazing food. I did a few shoots with him throughout 2023, and just wrapped one up yesterday. Here’s a shout-out for his 2024 James Beard nomination! His food is the most delicious art I have ever experienced. If you are looking for a great holiday, you cannot top dinner at ōkta, staying at the (Relais & Chateaux) Tributary hotel, and exploring Oregon Wine Country.
In June, it was on to Europe, to work as the National Geographic Photography Expert for a river trip on the Danube. The voyage began in Budapest, Hungary and ended up in Vilshofen, Germany. It was on this trip where I discovered my new favorite city in Eastern Europe, Czesky Krumlov, a UNESCO World Heratige Site.
I also learned that my colleague, the writer Mark Baker, was the subject of Operation Inter, a plot by the Czechoslovakian Secret Police in the 1980’s to turn him into an informant while he was living in Vienna. I photographed him while we were visiting Bratislava at the Hotel Devin because it was where the secret police had tried to set him up using a “honeypot” trap. It is such a great story, and Mark tells it best on his blog.
I’ll be going on the Christmas Market itinerary this December, if you’d like to join me you can sign up here.
The next stop for me in July was Iceland where we circumnavigated this geologic wonderland on board the National Geographic Explorer. We explored many gorgeous areas of Iceland, visited lovely towns, hiked to waterfalls, and saw tons of wildlife.
Over the summer, my work was included in two wonderful shows: Biomass, curated by Jeff Jahn and held in a Pearl District warehouse and “You Belong Among the Wildflowers,” a show curated by Jane Beebe, the owner of PDX Contemporary Art, where I am now an associated artist. If you are interested in my personal work, Jane is the person with whom to speak. My fine art website has a fairly complete selection of works I have made over the course of my career. You can purchase the work through me directly or through PDX Contemporary Art.
In October, I returned home to Oregon from Maui for a shoot for the Oregon Energy Trust, where we photographed people in their homes that had used OET products to improve their energy efficiency and thereby reducing their carbon footprint.
I also had the opportunity to view the annular solar eclipse. The last time I photographed an eclipse in Oregon was in 2017 when we were able to see totality.
It was also the first time I got a million likes on Instagram.
The month of November was spent back in Antarctica, where I had the privilege of visiting the Falkland Islands/Las Malvinas, South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninsula. In the Falkland Islands, I visited a farm where they grow produce that would otherwise have to be imported. I have become very interested in how island communities can achieve food independence. The company Stanley Growers produces about 20 tons of tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces and strawberries annually.
I was also tasked with delivering some canned salmon from some Alaska shipmates to their friends in Stanley and in the process, met a priest who is from the Midwest. One of my favorite things about traveling is meeting people and oddly, one of my favorite photos from this trip is of the priest at the church in Stanley where I delivered the salmon.
On a sad note, we learned that the avian flu had hit the wildlife on the island of South Georgia hard, so our trip there was truncated. We were nonetheless able to land at Fortuna Bay where we got to explore a King penguin colony. King penguin chicks, known as Okum boys, are a favorite subject as they are decked out in brown, fluffy coats.
Another notable experience on this voyage was being able to visit the world’s largest iceberg, A23A, which had just dislodged itself from being grounded for many years. The iceberg formed in 1986 after calving off of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. It is extremely difficult to show the size of this monster given that it is roughly the size of Rhode Island, but we had beautiful weather that day so I was able to get a few shots.
We had many wildlife encounters during our trip and it is always glorious to experience the raw beauty and harsh weather of one of the most remote and untouched areas left on this magnificent planet.
Later this year, instead of heading to Antarctica, I’ll be heading up north where I will explore the Northwest Passage for National Geographic. Won’t you join me? You can sign up here.
Commercial, Editorial and Travel Photographer Susan Seubert 