Svalbard Landscape Collection

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
1

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23-06-11-2-0001 1.jpg
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Midnight sun in the pack ice

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Crushed Oreos

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Glacier ice - incredibly blue

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Here are a few landscape images from Svalbard in early June. There were other times I was out with my camera in the year, but this really overshadowed most of it. Here are some images that I don’t think I’ve shared here yet. Let’s call this the landscape series. If I get a chance, I will post some wildlife and/or birds another day.

I still haven’t finished culling and editing my images. They are far from perfect and sometimes I think I need a “do over”. However, I’m still happy with the images and the memories both! I’m sure no two trips have the same conditions. Perhaps that’s one of the things that intrigues me about the ice.

Specific Feedback

Anything.

Technical Details

Settings are always a little embarrassing, because I know I’m not nearly as attentive to them as I should be. I think the first three were taken from our ship and the last was taken from a zodiac cruise, but the first image may also have been from a zodiac.

First image - full frame 100mm, f/11, 1/1250, ISO 400 (I think I was set up for birds.)
Midnight sun - full frame 24mm, f/8, 1/640, ISO 250, +0.3 exp comp
Crushed Oreos - full frame 400mm, f/8, 1/1000, ISO 400, +0.7 exp comp
Blue ice - 24mm but on APS-C, so I’m not sure if the Exif accounts for that. 1/640, f/10, ISO 320.

1 Like
2

Karla,
All four images are quite nice with #2 being my favorite. I like the solitary mood and the feeling as though the viewer is out in the middle of nowhere. I also like that highlight; almost in the center of the frame; from the sun. Very nicely done!

3

I keep coming back to these photos. Although all are very nice, I finally understand that I come back because of the first and last ones. The first, because it is my favorite. Why? I’m not sure but it is the one that draws my attention, perhaps because it there is a serenity about it for me. The Last one because I can’t figure out what that big object is. I try to see it as ice but keep thinking it is a human-made object that was crushed by the ice. It’s very intriguing.

4

@Ed_Lowe and @Jim_Gavin - Thanks for your comments. I know that I didn’t do justice to the place or conditions, but hopefully a fraction of it is there. :slight_smile: It was definitely remote and overall quite tranquil.

By the big opject in the last image, I am going to guess you mean the blue iceberg, correct? It has very dark brown sections which are dirt and rock compressed into very dense blue glacial ice. Our guides said this is some of the bluest they had seen and it would have been from near the bottom of the glacier (old/very compressed). It was a bit like photographing Havasu - the colors looked unreal. :slight_smile: