In preparation for a return to the Russian Far East this summer with Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic, photographer Erika Larsen and I answered a few questions. Erika: It is hard to say how this region will change travelers because I believe the way we interact with new landscapes and cultures is so individual. Jennifer:…
Lindblad Expeditions has been my main sponsor since 2015. Sometimes they ask Eric Guth and me to share some stories and images from our field work, and I wanted to share some samples with you. I’ve written about the Russian Far East: “The flight only took an hour; it’s hard to believe that two different…
I talked with Rob Rosenthal of Howsound about my CBC documentary “Meet the North.” We chatted about searching out people in the Arctic for their stories in “You Won’t Know If You Don’t Ask.” “In the doc, Jennifer travels the Arctic with no plan other than to interview people. That’s it. She interviews someone and…
I have the honour of being part of National Geographic’s Educator-Explorer Exchange this year. My educator partner is Kelly Koller from Washington Middle School in Oconto Falls, Wisconsin. A couple of weeks ago I got a packet of letters (real letters!) from her students. They had SO MANY questions for me, and Kelly and I…
I enjoyed working with the team at Hakai magazine on this story “Frozen Ocean: A photographic primer on the dynamics of marine ice.” It was a refreshing reminder that some media organizations still dig deep into every story with structural edits, fact checking, and copy editing. The editors went through every detail of this story…
An overview of somewhere new. Getting ready to explore Nuku Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia. Do you see the road down there?
Many outsiders think of these islands, the coral atolls of French Polynesia, as paradise, but there is no escaping the harsh conditions here. Although I LOVE to swim, I have never really explored the underwater world. Here, it was more than beauty that called to me from below the surface, it was a curiousity about…
“Meet the Elverums,” a documentary that I made for CBC’s the Sunday Edition, has won first place in the Radio Documentary, National Release category at the Gabriel Awards. It’s about a family in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada, and I worked with documentary maker Dick Miller and the show’s documentary producer, Karen Levine, to create it….
Welcome to the Marquesas! I hope these islands will blow your mind the way they are blowing mine. It’s just too much to start with colour, so I’m easing you in with an almost black & white. We are way out in the South Pacific, on the edge of French Polynesia. Kaoha! Bonjour! A place…
We came to this atoll to take a break from the towns, but when we saw some small buildings in the distance, Eric and I took a zodiac over to check them out. We found two people working their coconut grove: harvesting coconuts and drying them. We stopped for a visit and met a little…
These islands, the Tuamotus, lie so low and shine so bright. Each one makes a hoop on the ocean — circular from above, but long and linear from water level. So beautiful and so harsh. A perch from which to return to the ocean.
Racing the pass at Apataki on the National Geographic Orion.
Arriving to a new place I’m often drawn to the small things. A new landscape, in its entirety, is too overwhelming. I have to take it piece by piece. So this is one of the first encounters I had in French Polynesia once we embarked the National Geographic Orion and headed out into the blue….
And now for something completely different! French Polynesia in the Tuamotus. The coral, the palms, the secrets they keep. What stories will we find here? I am listening.
I stood on the deck for a long time last night as we left Pape’ete, Tahiti’s big city. I couldn’t get used to the warm air. After three years visiting the Arctic and Antarctic, I kept waiting for a blast of cold to hit me. I gripped a cardigan thinking that – any minute –…