The Falklands are situated in the South Atlantic Ocean, 300 miles from the coast of South America and 850 miles north of the Antarctic Circle. There are more than 740 islands, the biggest being East and West Falkland, with the total land mass covering around 4,700 square miles.
Getting to the Falklands isn’t easy. I took the commercial airline option, which involved three long and arduous flights (a cancelled leg meant an extra day’s travelling). I also got to stop over in Santiago, Chile. I hadn’t been to South America before so that’s another country ticked off.
While the purpose of my trip was to visit my daughter, Libby (who is living there with her fiancé temporarily), the camera would inevitably take precedence at some point. With a bleak but wondrous landscape and an abundance of wildlife, including five species of penguin (gentoo, Magellanic, rockhopper, king and macaroni), as well as southern elephant seals, sea lions, fur seals, dolphins and more than 220 other bird species, it was clear I was going to have to try my hand at being a wildlife photographer.
Read more about Lawrence’s photographic adventure in the Falkland Islands in OP 318