″I have an entire closet for polar wear, and another wardrobe just for my tropical outfits,” says Cindy Miller Hopkins, a travel and wildlife photographer who lists her address as Colorado Springs, Colorado – even if she only spends about five or six weeks of the year there.

The rest of the time she’s roaming the world. Leading photo safaris, teaching digital photography, working as a guest lecturer on expedition cruise ships. Capturing images with her Nikon that have so far graced thousands of publications from textbooks to calendars to fine-art prints. She has photographed zebras in Zambia. Whirling dervishes in Turkey. The cliffs of Western Australia’s Kimberley coast as viewed from the Indian Ocean.

Her 2018 shot of five species of penguin in one frame, which she took in the remote South Sandwich Islands, is thought to be the only one of its kind, anywhere.

Twenty-five years’ worth of peripatetic living means Miller Hopkins has her travel packing down pat. “I take two suitcases with me,” she says, seated onboard Le Commandant Charcot, the luxury icebreaker ship owned by French company Ponant, for whom she’s a photo ambassador. “And I pack two of everything– gloves, boots, sarongs, sun cream – and split them. I would rather have something and not need it than have something go missing, especially if there is no place to shop.”

Early this morning, Miller Hopkins was the first passenger out on the promenade deck following the captain’s announcement that a polar bear had been spotted on the ice on the starboard side. “I always set out my clothes on a chair in my suite so I can jump into them like a fireman.

“Gloves, hat, headband, neck gaiter, sunglasses, layers, pants, waterproof pants and boots with heavy socks inside them. Everything I bring, I’ll have worn for a while at home so I know it is easy to wear. I want nice-looking utilitarian gear; a parka that is waterproof, not water-resistant, that has sealed zips and never velcro, which not only makes a noise but gets seeds and plants sticking in it which is a problem in places like Antarctica where you go through a lot of biosecurity.

“I’m always asking my fellow travellers about their comfy-looking boots or state-of-the-art binoculars, and then I do my research,” she says. “Someone in Costa Rica had a waterproof poncho that turned out to be ideal for birding because it doesn’t rustle and rolls up small so you can put it in your pocket.”

Today, off duty, she’s wearing a green floral top, lightweight black travel trousers and jewellery made from aqua-coloured labradorite, a favourite stone. “I like versatile clothes that allow me to represent a luxury company but cross over so that I can throw on a parka and head outside,” says Miller Hopkins, who brings beauty products in refillable bottles. Here in the Arctic, it’s thick hair conditioner, chapsticks, hand cream and foot lotion (“Rubber boots for 30 days play havoc”) to offset the effects of the cold.