National Geographic have done it again. In their July Magazine photographer, Laurent Ballesta shows us some of the incredible shots he captured from a few hundred feet below the icy surface of Antartica.
It was October 2015 and Laurent had been invited there by filmmaker Luc Jacquet, who was working on a sequel to his 2005 triumph, March of the Penguins. While Jacquet filmed Emperor Penguins, Ballesta and his team were there to document life under the ice.
Luckily for the crew, it was spring when they arrived. In winter the ice reaches 60 miles out to sea. But in springtime, the ice recedes for around 36 days, allowing them to dive through it - and 230 feet down!
A deep-diving photographer, Ballesta has been diving for 30 years, first learning in the Mediterranean Sea. His quests have since taken him 400 feet off the coast of South Africa to photograph rare coelacanths, and a 24-hour journey away from Fakarava, in French Polynesia, to witness the mating of 17,000 groupers. But no one had ever dived this deep under Antarctic Ice.
I will leave Laurent to tell you the story in his own words, we just wanted to show you these amazing photos. More in July's National Geographic Magazine.
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