In Whatever Moves or Makes Noise, my photo essay of the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, I decided to leave photo captions out of the book. I wanted to focus on the beauty and ambience of the place, less like photo journalism or documentary photography. But understandably many people asked for this info! So here they are: captions for each picture in the book. If you have any questions, leave a comment below!
1. Looking across Taylor Valley over Lake Bonney (steep glacial valley; the lake occupies the valley floor)
2. Rocks buried in sand dunes, wind action on the sand, Victoria Valley dune field
3. Ice stalactites in an ice cave in Taylor Glacier, Taylor Valley
4. Aerial view of an ice field/glacier, McMurdo Dry Valleys region
5. Rock wall in Upper Wright Valley, within "The Maze"
6. "Moat ice" on the edge of Lake Bonney, Taylor Valley; the perimeter of each frozen lake has several meters of this smooth, transparent ice
7. Eroded boulders near the summit of Mount Falconer, Taylor Valley
8. Footprints and wind action on sand dunes, Victoria Valley dune field
9. Air bubbles in frozen lake ice
10. Sun (lower left) and upward-cast shadow on Mount Falconer, Taylor Valley
11. Silhouette of my friend Cliff inside one of the huts operated by New Zealand in Wright Valley
12. Cracks in lake ice
13. Sand over lake ice, various cracks and ripples
14. Lens flare looking down at moat ice
15. Sand and gravel slope with, trails of moisture and/or rocks, Bonney Riegel (a sort of ridge exposed by glacial erosion), Lake Bonney, Taylor Valley
16. Rock buried in gravel in an area called the “Zen Garden" above Lake Bonney, Taylor Valley
17. Don Juan Pond, Wright Valley (stays liquid water at 40 below due to high salinity)
18. "Popcorn ice,” nickel-size snow balls, Garwood Valley
19. Silhouette of Cliff walking at dusk, Taylor Valley
20. A vertical wall of ice, actually the end of a glacier, with a baseball-size rock, exposed to the light, melting the ice around it
21. Another rock in the Zen Garden, eroded and sculpted by wind borne particles
22. Ice cave, Taylor Glacier, Taylor Valley (look closely, it is occupied!)
23. Boulder, Wright Valley (what's interesting is the top of the "face" is titled 60 degrees toward the camera)
24. Sand waves, Bull Pass, Wright Valley
25. Aerial view of glaciers and exposed rock/soil on the edge of the McMurdo Dry Valleys
26. Cracks in lake ice
27. Bonney Riegel, Lake Bonney, Taylor Valley