Glacier terminal close-up, a photo from Greenland, Other

Photographer's Note

As I mentioned in the note to my previous post
it is very hard to depict the enormity of a glacier without something like a boat or a person in the photograph to provide scale, but I thought I would still post this close-up of part of the terminus (or ‘snout’ as it is sometimes called) of the Knud Rasmussen glacier so that you can see the detail of what a glacier terminus looks like.

This shot was taken on the right hand side (i.e. the south-east corner) of the terminus that is pictured in my previous post, where it is much lower than on the left and in the middle. The height of the ice in this picture is about 30 metres (about 100 ft) on the left and about 15 metres on the right - still quite an impressive sight.

This was taken with a wide angle lens, so we were quite close to the face of the terminus – which, as I was to find out later, is not all that safe a place to be. As I was urging our seal-hunter boatman to take us closer to the ice, one of my traveling companions was looking very nervous.

I found out later that whilst I had been busy taking photographs earlier, our boatman had been telling my friends that it is not safe to go too close to a glacier terminus because sometimes there can be a shelf of ice still attached to the glacier underwater, and this can break off without warning and rise to the surface like a submarine, tipping over any boats above and its occupants into the freezing water. (I suppose if the chunk of ice that broke off was large enough, we could find ourselves floating down the fjord on top of a new iceberg). As well, when the icebergs are calved from the front of the glacier terminus, the wave that is created can also be quite dangerous for any small boats close-by (and ours was only an 18 footer).

So it was only afterwards that I understood the look of apprehension on my friend’s face as I was shouting to the boatman: “Can you go closer please, closer please!”

I sharpened only the ice in this image, in order not to introduce any noise into the beautiful blue sky (the air is so crystal clear and unpolluted in Greenland). My Iceland/Greenland trip was my first outing with my new D200 body (I’d been having problems with the metering on my D100 recently) and I’ve been very pleased with the quality of the images produced by the D200. With the D100, even at the lowest ISO setting, I had to process nearly every image through NeatImage, but with the D200 I haven’t used NeatImage at all yet (the lower ISO100 setting certainly helps – with the D100, the lowest ISO was 200).

isabela_sor, jcdurka1, dlevy23, capthaddock, elmec, Emile, siolaw, cessy, John_F_Kennedy, riclopes, plimrn, vincz, pboehringer, carper, pablominto, batalay, chrisnet, ChrisJ, Henryk_Bilor, aloyho, salvator, Didi has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

isabela_sor (47748) 2007-07-23 4:51

The blue of sky is amazing !!!In these hooot summer days only looking photos like these makes me to feel more comfortable ...
Exceptional quality of this shot
Congratulations

BlueRaven (37) 2007-07-23 4:55

Wow, the colours are amazing!
My first thought was that this looks like the entrance to the hiding place of some James Bond villain. ;o)
And I have to agree with Isabela - looking at icy photos like this makes the present temperatures easier to bear.
Best wishes
Claudia

jcdurka1 (1950) 2007-07-23 5:28

Great picture where I'm impressed by the level of grey and blue colors. With no overexposition and with a great sky and reflect on the water.
Very well done,
Cheers, Jean-Claude

dlevy23 (2018) 2007-07-23 6:01

Great photo, nice colors and composition. Even without been able to copare the size of this place. Just knowing that is a glacier should be enough. Good job

Daniel

capthaddock (28790) 2007-07-23 7:49

Hi David - most people would choose a tropical beach as their idea of heaven, but for me it's places like Greenland, safe or not, what a gorgeous place to be.

elmec (12210) 2007-07-23 9:22

Hello David!
Amazing trip You catch!
It's like a dream, like very far away land!
It is far away land!
Perfect composition, great light and colours!
I'm jealous!
Best regards!

Charo (51290) 2007-07-23 15:15

Hola David,
Yo quiero ver algo asi...
Precioso glaciar del que has captado unos colores magníficos con un cielo increiblemente azul y bellos reflejos.
Gran POV.
Felicitaciones.
Cordialmente
Charo

PJE (20758) 2007-07-23 20:43

David I could just barely make out this cavern shape in your large previous posting. When you get close like this a sense of wonder must have overwhelmed you. Simply a real treat to view these photos you have captured in Greenland.. or Iceland.. or what is left of it! Did you see evidence of global warming? According to Al Gore Greenland has very little ice left on it.

Emile (20352) 2007-07-23 20:47

Hola David.
Very interesting shot with the impressive glacier, very well captured. Nice blue and white color contrast plus a very good reflection. Your POV is good, great composition, your note very instructive.
I use Photoshop, how do you sharpened only one part of the picture???
Well done. TFS.
Best regards.

siolaw (38294) 2007-07-23 21:45

Hi David,
I just now saw your Greenland series... very interesting and beautiful...
Good compo with the rule of thirds well applied(sky, glacier, water...)excellent colors and light managment(i suppose light was very bright)nice shine on the icy water and good ice colors...
TFS
Laurent

cessy (13647) 2007-07-24 1:34

Hallo David
I have never seen landscape like this with my own eyes
looks strange, cold and mysterious
maybe it's true that we can't imagine the size without the comparison, but like reading a book - seeing this picture plus your note, made our imagination wanders even farther about this place.
thank you for sharing

John_F_Kennedy (43797) 2007-07-24 2:51

Very impressive picture of this white nature phenomenon. Very nice shot with lovely sunlight.
Best wishes,
Achim

riclopes (35577) 2007-07-24 9:06

Olá David, most amazing place and I'm glad to see a close detail on this one, but I'm still smilling with your "cartoon" story about all of you floating down on a new iceberg :) Everything ended well, or you wouldn't be here with these attractive images ;-) Nice textures on the ice and gorgeous blue sky for the contrast.
Cheers,
ricardo

plimrn (21344) 2007-07-24 11:45

Hi David,
I'm quite sure this is the best glacier shot I have seen. I don't even need a small man to know that it is huge with your excellent framing of the ice cave and the reflection in the water. The detail and color is wonderful.

Your story reminds me of a time when we were sailing through Dodd Narrows off BC. There was a huge log boom in front of us completely filling the narrows. I kept urging Larry to get closer for a better picture. Finallly he said, Is that close enough?" When I agreed, he responded, "Well it's a good thing because I'm running the motor in full reverse just to stay off the top of that thing!!"
HLJ, Pat

vincz (19113) 2007-07-25 16:33

Fantastic picture with so incredible blue colors. Reflections are amazing. the polarizer provided you with a good deep blue sky. A very good one.

pboehringer (770) 2007-07-26 17:36

David, your note reminds me a lot of your note regarding the lion, crocodile and hippopotamus. It seems that you have a drive for the danger and I'm glad that nothing happened because I didn't want to miss this Greenland images. You're a right a reference with a eskimo in a kajak, or a seal on top of the ice or something like that would give the right reference. Yet, this image is stil quite impressive and with your note you gave the right introduction for a full appreciation.

carper (96) 2007-07-27 8:48

I like the detailed shot of the Glacier more then the other one from distange, very nice pov and a wel taken shot, indeed maybe a little more sharpnes wil made the shot better, farther I like the good job here, have a nice day.
gr. jaap

pablominto (53746) 2007-07-27 10:27

Hello David,
Let me say... You really hit it with the weather for your visit to Greenland! Those glaciers and icebergs look so much better in bright sunshine under a Nordic blue sky...
This is well exposed with superb details, the reflection enhances my experience strongly...
Greetings,
Pablo -

batalay (41261) 2007-07-27 15:11

Hello David,

What a symphony of colors. The sharpening of just the glacier, without touching the sky, is a very good idea. The deep blue of the sky (made deeper by the aperture closing up to accomodate the color of the ice), has made this a dramatic image. I remember seeing similar ice fields at Glacier Bay in Alaska, but this is one of the best images I've seen of a glacier. Your discussion of the D200 vs. D100 is much appreciate, indeed making my decision a bit simpler.

Warm regards,
Bulent

chrisnet (23062) 2007-07-28 13:34

Hello David,
Very nice landscape of Greenland, super contrast of the ice and the wonderful blue sky, the reflexions are stunnig! Well done.
Regards
Christian

kalparupa (0) 2007-07-29 5:08

Thats a beautiful catch. Soothing and relaxing.

paura (25802) 2007-08-01 17:59

David,
Excelent POV to show this amazing colors. This is really a very interesting place.

Paulo

ChrisJ (171220) 2007-08-02 4:56

Hi David

Nice reflections in the fg water, with a superb blue sky, which I imagine is rare in these parts? Good sharpness, pov, & colour. I like the blue green tints in the ice. Tfs!

Henryk_Bilor (20803) 2007-08-02 11:03

Hello David
Amazing colours, light, reflections and the whole quality of the image. Beautiful place.
Regards

jmcl (14535) 2007-08-07 15:48

Hi David,

The "tunnel' in is striking .. the reflection is beautiful .. as are your blues .. toward the far right the snow is looking on the edge of being overexposed .. this had to be very tricky ..
a powerful and beautiful image.

take care,

John

aloyho (6798) 2007-08-17 5:50

Hi David,
So I'm back and have been enjoying going through especially your icy cool shots. I am impressed to see this interesting snout and the lovely colours of the ice. The reflections helped to enhance our visual experience. Your description did remind me of the recent incident of a tourists boat getting too close to it. It must be a great experience to be there. Very impressive!!
Regards.

salvator (19110) 2007-08-21 11:12

Hi David,
Very impressive photo of this iceberg, the details and colors are very veryt nice. Best regards. Salvator.

rafid76 (0) 2007-08-25 12:07

complements! what an astonishing photo. its wounderful to look at. your note helps allot tell us about the place. i love how crisp and clear the iceberg looks

Didi (61589) 2007-09-05 17:21

Hi David
It's a great place a magnificient composition of ice.
The low foreground gives an iteresting depht in this picture.
Merci et à bientôt.

colinbrenchley (6431) 2008-01-26 0:30

David
Your Greenland portfolio is truely amazing. What wonderful light you encoutered. But I suppose luck plays a part because you probably ould encounter low cloud, snow and poor visibility. Great colours White balance spot on.
Regards COlin