Wednesday (12-June-2013) — Germany

Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 47: Kiel Canal, Germany.

I was part of a team of six photographers that took ~30,000 images as the MV Explorer (Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage) transits the Kiel Canal in Germany.Howard Ignatius used the images to create this time-lapse video of the passage through the canal.

Tuesday (11-June-2013) — At Sea

Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 46: Copenhagen, Denmark.

Sunset on the Baltic Sea. Are there offshore oil platforms in the Baltic Sea off Denmark? Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera FT1 adapter and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec).

Sunset on the Baltic Sea. Are There Offshore Oil Platforms in the Baltic Sea Off Denmark? Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera FT1 adapter and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage. (David J Mathre)
Sunset on the Baltic Sea. Are There Offshore Oil Platforms in the Baltic Sea Off Denmark? Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera FT1 adapter and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)

Monday (10-June-2013) — At Sea

Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 45: At Sea between Stockholm and Copenhagen.

Late night or early in the morning (hard to tell this far north when there isn’t much darkness at night) I looked out my cabin window on the MV Explorer and saw the electric blue Noctilucent clouds. I read about them before (http://www.spaceweather.com/), but had never seen them.  The clouds are ice crystals that are very high that you can only see for a short time when the sun is below the horizon. One theory is the crystals are nucleated when micro-meteors pass through the upper atmosphere. We were in the Baltic Sea traveling from Stockholm to Copenhagen and the sun doesn’t set until very late I set up a camera in my cabin and took a set of 99 images that I made into this time-lapsed video (Nikon D4 camera, 28 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 200, 28 mm, f/1.8, 1 sec)).


Sunday (09-June-2013) — Baltic Sea

Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 44: At Sea.

Silhouette of a sailboat passing in front of the sun at sunset from the deck of the MV Explorer. Crossing the Baltic Sea from Stockholm to Copenhagen.

Silhouette of a Sailboat Passing in Front of the Sun at Sunset from the Deck of the MV Explorer. Crossing the Baltic Sea from Stockholm to Copenhagen. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/11, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Silhouette of a Sailboat Passing in Front of the Sun at Sunset from the Deck of the MV Explorer. Crossing the Baltic Sea from Stockholm to Copenhagen. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/11, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)

Friday (07-June-2013) — Sweden

Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 42: Stockholm, Sweden.

Silhouette of a Sailboat at Sunrise on the way to Stockholm. The image was taken from my cabin. The sun rises very early (before 04:00) this far north. Trying to capture both sunrise and sunset everyday is a challenge.

Sailboat at Sunrise on the way to Stockholm. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera from my cabin on the MV Explorer (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/16, 1/125 sec). Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage. (David J Mathre)
Sailboat at Sunrise on the way to Stockholm. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera from my cabin on the MV Explorer (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/16, 1/125 sec). Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage. (David J Mathre)