Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
It has been a while since I posted to NPN and I’m not sure why. This community is simply the best group of folks around and I am so thankful for all of the hardwork of everyone who contributes to this site, including the incredible work of David running the show.
I am really just looking for general feedback and to share the image. How does this make you feel? Where do your eyes travel and how do they progress through the image?
Other Information
Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.
Image Description
This shot was taken in Iceland during my winter workshop there. We visited a glacial lagoon for sunrise one morning and all of the icebergs were frozen in place in the lagoon. We walked out on to the ice to explore the different icebergs. It was cold this morning, though it doesn’t look it from the image…-5F with the windchill.
My eyes go to the mountains and then the sky. Not sure you need so much since that’s clearly not the reason you took this excellent icy photo. Having done a winter workshop on Lake Superior I know the lure of sunset and sunrise ice. I wonder if you could eliminate some sky and illuminate the berg a bit more so folks focus on it more. Great pink and blue contrast that could be played up, too. Welcome back!
Edit: I forgot to state my initial reaction but it was one of Awe as I am really always in awe of grand landscapes of mountains like this, it’s difficult to judge scale in this but it looks BIG
My eyes go to the Ice Ship first and they stay there long enough to explore the orientation which to me appears to have capsized and grounded on what appears to be a gravel bar? or maybe the gravel bar is just different ice and the two types have merged?
Then my eyes travel to the distant mountains with that lovely purple/pink color cast on the snow.
Then onto the sky and the clouds where those same colors reside so nicely.
The clouds in the upper portion feel needed to support the darker capsized Ice Ship and the Ice Ship certainly has been around a while judging by the darker blue color that is typical of bergs and growlers.
Of course the Ice Ship could be oriented upright and shaped like a Ferry Boat for example.
I can see where a 16:9 AR might be a more effective choice though (using 16:9 as a reference only).
Interestingly, I saw your name in another thread yesterday and I wanted to refresh my memory of your website, and while browsing through your images I ran across this same one so I was a bit surprised to see it posted here for review.
Awesome collection BTW!!
Hi Mervin!
Thank you so much for your perspective on this image! To me it struck me as ship that had been trapped by the ice, e.g. Shackleton, and that theme resonated with me. Plus, how the shape of the iceberg was similar to the shape of the mountains to have some repetitive patterns in it.
Interesting thought about 16:9. I might try that and see how it feels. Or, taken more extreme into more of a pano crop so it’s just the iceberg and mountain.
I was pleased enough with it to post it to my regular site. Of course I can always edit and replace if I find a new way to treat it. Trying to stay in more printable sizes on that site because they are for sale. Not just online viewing. Thank you so much for looking again and for the kind words!
I’ll play with some crop and see how it “feels” to me.
I’ll keep this short and just go with my initial feelings. Apologies if it in anyways comes across blunt
My initial reaction to the images was that the colours were really nice and in general I felt the processing was nicely handled. Those mountains are beautiful! However, my eyes were immediately drawn to the iceberg (mound?) in the middle and how it blocked the mountains. My feelings on it also lean towards the horizontal foreground almost acting as a barrier to the beautiful mountains in the background - the orientation and positioning of the foreground element for me is distracting and doesn’t add depth to the scene.
Hope that helps and is the type of critique you were after!
Thank you so much Eugene! I appreciate the honest feedback and your initial feelings to the image. That’s exactly what I was hoping for! I’ll take your words and contemplate them in the photo.
