Cerulean Caverns
Brilliant smooth yet almost crinkled textures, and some of the coolest blue hues imaginable, make a passage through centuries-old glacial ice an unbelievably wondrous and grand experience--in an ice cave beneath the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, near Jokulsarlon, Iceland.
A couple of days after Sky Matthews and I got to witness the astounding night-long aurora shared in previous posts, we met our excellent guide from Blue Iceland, put on our crampons and struck out across the glacier toward the more distant ice caves and our other primary photographic goal in heading to Iceland during the winter. Once again, nature did not disappoint!
I took a fair bit of time working this long, darker section of the first cave we went into until I found this spot where the curves in the cave's form, the convergence of multiple passages, and the distant moulin openings above created the illusion of almost a nautilus form when looking deeper into the image. I always like these little plays of perspective, and this one was particularly pleasing to find.
The varying forms and lighting conditions founds in these caves is absolutely amazing. There are times it almost feels like hiking in a tunnel of blue, brown or black bubble wrap (depending on how much light is reaching that part of the cave and how much dust and dirt is embedded in the visible surface of the exposed ice). And the lighting is something else entirely in some places--the way the light seems to flow through the cave from distant moulins, brushing the complex ridges in the ice forms with harder glow then seeming to scatter and diffuse softly throughout.
I made this image in a very dark stretch of the ice cave, and this image is a fair bit lighter than it appeared to the naked eye. I have a darker, moodier image taken only a few steps away that I also like (and which I'll share sometime later) that's closer to what I recall my perception and feeling being at the time, but everyone--including me--loves the ethereal blues in ice caves so I exposed this one a bit longer and brightened it a little further in post to better reveal the dynamic colors and textures in this unique and wonderful environment.
I still have my addiction to single exposures, and I must say this one was quite a challenge--had to use the dark cloth technique to achieve a manageable balance of light and shadow. Anyway, I plan to work on processing this a little better at some point soon, but I really enjoy this composition and thought I'd go ahead and share.
Thanks for viewing!
Cerulean Caverns
Brilliant smooth yet almost crinkled textures, and some of the coolest blue hues imaginable, make a passage through centuries-old glacial ice an unbelievably wondrous and grand experience--in an ice cave beneath the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, near Jokulsarlon, Iceland.
A couple of days after Sky Matthews and I got to witness the astounding night-long aurora shared in previous posts, we met our excellent guide from Blue Iceland, put on our crampons and struck out across the glacier toward the more distant ice caves and our other primary photographic goal in heading to Iceland during the winter. Once again, nature did not disappoint!
I took a fair bit of time working this long, darker section of the first cave we went into until I found this spot where the curves in the cave's form, the convergence of multiple passages, and the distant moulin openings above created the illusion of almost a nautilus form when looking deeper into the image. I always like these little plays of perspective, and this one was particularly pleasing to find.
The varying forms and lighting conditions founds in these caves is absolutely amazing. There are times it almost feels like hiking in a tunnel of blue, brown or black bubble wrap (depending on how much light is reaching that part of the cave and how much dust and dirt is embedded in the visible surface of the exposed ice). And the lighting is something else entirely in some places--the way the light seems to flow through the cave from distant moulins, brushing the complex ridges in the ice forms with harder glow then seeming to scatter and diffuse softly throughout.
I made this image in a very dark stretch of the ice cave, and this image is a fair bit lighter than it appeared to the naked eye. I have a darker, moodier image taken only a few steps away that I also like (and which I'll share sometime later) that's closer to what I recall my perception and feeling being at the time, but everyone--including me--loves the ethereal blues in ice caves so I exposed this one a bit longer and brightened it a little further in post to better reveal the dynamic colors and textures in this unique and wonderful environment.
I still have my addiction to single exposures, and I must say this one was quite a challenge--had to use the dark cloth technique to achieve a manageable balance of light and shadow. Anyway, I plan to work on processing this a little better at some point soon, but I really enjoy this composition and thought I'd go ahead and share.
Thanks for viewing!