Ice

[John Chardine]

I am on my annual 7-week stint in Antarctica working as a lecturer (wildlife photography and ornithology) on board an expedition cruise ship (MS Fram)

My goal this trip was to get to know my new 14-24mm lens and practise landscapes and HDRs. This image is a one-image HDR processed in Photomatix. Almost FF but some taken off the top. NR performed on sky and sea. The iceberg was sharpened. The HDR has brought out a lot of detail not visible to the eye. Hope you like it.

Date: 17 November, 2011, Time: 1107h
Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 @14mm
Program: Aperture Priority
ISO 400, 1/640s, f/8
Exp. comp.: +0.7

[Julie Kenward]

Beautiful image, John! I don't do HDR yet so I can't really comment on that but I love the almost black-and-white look of this image with that incredible blue glow throughout. Looking at it I had the idea that it would be nice if something led my eye from that front piece of ice to the back piece in the distance...maybe doing a little selective dodging on select areas of the ice from FG to BG? Kind of a lighter trail that would help move the eye back into the image a bit more? For me, I see the front edge of the piece in the water and then the back piece but nothing in the middle is drawing me that way...I'm simply going FG/BG/FG. I'd love to see if you could get my eye to go all the way through instead of hopping back and forth.

[gail bisson]

Hi John,
Great gig you have! Do you need an assistant?
I really like this image. I am not learned in HDR but this shot is inspiring me to learn more about it. Were the blues already there or did you manipulate image to get this? In any case I really like this and would put a 16 x 20 on my wall,
Gail

[Indranil Sircar]

Excellent composition, John. Love the view! I also like the b&w look with touch of blue around. The overcast sky looks awesome and provides a great depth to the image. Julie has a point and I wonder if it may be from the fg ice shelf being just a bit blur. Maybe f/14 or higher might have helped to get more DOF. TFS and looking forward to more :S3:

[Paul Lagasi]

John, I've only seen two images from your combo..and I am starting to believe. Just a lovely piece of art...congrats

[Steve Adkins]

Fascinating colors, subjects and reflections, John. I like Julie's idea of a curving luminescent leading line from FG to the big ice. Is it a reflection (blue) or are we able to see beneath the water in the FG? Such a bright illumination. It's wonderful! Hope to see more from your travels.

[John Chardine]

Thanks Paul. The 14 to 24 is great but very wide and useful in special circumstances. I have just ordered the 24 to 70 f2.8 from BH ($200 off) which should perfectly fill the gap between the 14 to 24 and the 70 to 300.

The blue ice underwater is waterlogged and shaded by the ice above. The ice absorbs all colours except blue which is reflects back at you, hence the colour.

Im composing this image on a crappy Windows LCD monitor and again seeing how important contrast is. On this uncalibrated, low contrast monitor the image looks very flat compared to my MB Air. I hope it looks better on your monitors!

[denise ippolito]

John, I love everything about this one. The sky, iceberg, colors, composition -all of it. Lovely!!:S3:

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi John, love this image...wouldn't change a thing!