Icebergs in the lagoon

[Mike Buckley]

These photos of the lagoon were captured in Iceland across the highway from the black lava beach shown in my other two threads that has chunks of ice strewn all over it. Icebergs calve from the nearby glacier and mostly float into one end of the lagoon, which is formed by the runoff of water from the glacier. The other icebergs float out to sea, break up and are deposited in small chunks on the black beach.

I have visited the icebergs floating in the lake at the Tasman Glacier in New Zealand's Mount Cook National Park on the South Island. Unlike that scene, this lagoon is absolutely packed with icebergs.

We visited the lagoon three times at the "right" times but had good light only once for about 20 minutes. (The first two images weren't taken at that time.) Though the light was great at the black beach at sunrise, it was terrible 200 meters away at this scene.

C&C encouraged, as always.

#1



#2



#3 (Captured by my wife; post-processed by her assistant -- me)



#4

[Manfred M]

Nice shots Mike. The "natural sculptures" at Jokulsarlon always remind me of abstract art.

[Sergio M.]

Mike, very nice shots. You and your wife are very skilled to be able to capture all this frozen beauty.
Was it difficult?

Serge

[Mike Buckley]

Manfred: You mentioned abstract art and that is definitely what I was going for in the last image.

Serge: Photographing the ice with sunlight shining directly through it from behind while also dealing with the black beach is the most difficult photography I have ever done. Photographing the icebergs was considerably easier. In the last image, post-processing the bright areas and bringing out the texture in the ice required extremes that I had never used. So, doing that was difficult in the sense that I was doing stuff that I had never done to achieve the effect I had in mind.

[FrankMi]

Although both #1 and #3 are my favorites, the contrast in #1 really pushes this one out front for me! A unique image well composed and captured with a lot of 'story telling' depth!

[Mike Buckley]

Glad you like them, Frank!

[Mr Foreman]

I agree with Frank on No1 being the best. #3 has something distracting in it I can't quite work out, maybe the ice block in the bottom right hand corner. With the back light on the ice, the mist on the far mountain #3 has much potential.

[Mike Buckley]

#3 has something distracting in it I can't quite work out, maybe the ice block in the bottom right hand corner.

That's a really good point. Speaking of good points, I'll be sure to make a point of toning that down. Seriously, thanks for bringing that to my attention.

[Cogito]

Aah, I envy your opportunity to visit such places! Nice series of images. I notice one was taken with a D80. Was that the wife?
The closest I ever got to such a landscape was about 30,000 ft..... and in the warmth !
P.S. "and in the warmth" is a link.

[Mike Buckley]

Yes, Tony. I was using a D7000 and my wife was using a D80. That's except for the two days that we were both using the D80 because the D7000 died. Fortunately, Manfred publicly posted a Hail Mary attempt to revive it that worked perfectly. In fact, some of these images were taken the first day that he got the D7000 working again.

Can I thank Manfred enough? Probably not, but I'll keep trying.

[Kathy O]

Absolutely Beautiful!!