  
In the course of this work I have been on assignments on a Russian expedition ship in the Antarctic, on a luxury yacht circumnavigating the Galapagos, with a team making the first descent of the Tekeze river in Ethiopia, on the "Nose" route of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley and most recently in the Selkirk mountains and the Canadian Rockies. On all occasions I have been part of a team often working with one or more writers and sometimes other photographers and videographers. When we were transmitting via satellite telephones were usually accompanied by a satellite specialist . On the technical side the capturing digital images is relatively easy. I have had the use of some of the best equipment on the market the Kodak DC460 and a DC 50 and on the whole it has stood up incredibly well to the rugged conditions. My camera kit on these occasions has also included a high powered laptop computer, a Jazz drive, modem and on occasion I have also had satellite telephones, external monitors, desktop computers, CD-Rom burners, dye sub printers, car batteries, inverters and petrol generators. Pelican cases have been the main means of transporting and protecting all this fragile hardware. The main way I have ensured that the job will get done in spite of the inevitable breakdowns has been to try and multiple back ups of the vital pieces of the equation . Virtual Antarctica was my first such assignment and so there was a very steep learning curve. I had to become familiar with editing and manipulating images in photoshop for sending by satellite. This involves taking the proprietary camera files and acquiring them in Photoshop which creates a very large (18 megabyte) file. This then has to be adjusted sized and compressed down to a very small file ( 50k) for transmission I was also shooting Quicktime VR Panoramas with the digital camera on a specially modified Peace River QTVR tripod head. On the Galapagos expedition I experimented with getting digital images underwater by using a Kodak DC50 in a Ewa Marine video housing. The tropical heat on this expedition took its toll on the computers but the cameras stood up extremely well. The Tekeze First Descent was the most demanding assignment because we had to cope with packing and unpacking our kit every day, keeping it waterproof and running everything off generators. The biggest problems ended up being dust, bugs and the heat.
Timberland - Mercedes Benz Dinosaur Fossil Hunt. Mungo Park
Microsoft's online adventure travel magazine. Digital photographer on
the trek through Alberta and Montana's leading fossil beds. Jade Tiger- Mungo Park Microsoft's online adventure travel magazine. Digital photographer and field Producer for the expedition that made the first descent of the Tekeze River in Ethiopia. Tekeze First Descent - Mungo Park Microsoft's online adventure travel magazine. Digital photographer and field Producer for the expedition that made the first descent of the Tekeze River in Ethiopia.
HighSights '96 - Producer of TerraQuest's highly acclaimed web site which documented the first ascent of El Captain, Yosemite Valley by blind mountaineer, Eric Weinmeyer. Virtual Galapagos - Field Producer and digital photographer for the second of TerraQuests award winning web sites May 1996. Virtual Antarctica - Field Producer of TerraQuest's the inaugural award winning web site December 1995.  Jonathan Chester Extreme Images Inc. P.O. Box 7398 Berkeley, CA 94707 Phone 510-235-7533 Fax 510-235-7590 jchester@extremeimages.com ©1997-2004 Extreme Images, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Blistering heat, tropical humidity, dust storms,
bugs, extreme exposure, thunderstorms, rapids, blizzards,
gale force winds, freezing cold, and AK47 sub machine guns -
I have had to cope with all these elements in a years
digital assignments. Shooting digital in extreme locations
has called all the usual photojournalistic skills but then I
have had to master a whole new spectrum of technology to
archive, edit and transmit these images.