Mer de Glace at Chamonix
Mer de Glace at Chamonix
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Awards
People's Choice in Black and White World Photo Challenge
People's Choice in Leading Lines Black & White Photo Challenge
People's Choice in B&W nature Photo Challenge
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Member Selection Award
Contest Finalist in Black And White Mountains Photo Contest
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
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Outstanding Creativity
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UnkleFrank
May 07, 2016
What a view!!! Congratulations on a well deserved award, David. My compliments.
FrankSomma
May 07, 2016
Awesomeness David. Great POV and the tones, fantastic. Congrats and good luck!!!
NatureLoverJJWal
May 11, 2016
I love the curve of the road and I am impressed with the perspective. Congratulations on your award!
cmorisset
May 11, 2016
Congrats David for your beautifully captured glacier. The B & W makes the textures come through. Perfect composition. Bravo!
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo of the Mer de Glace which is a valley glacier located on the northern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif, in the French Alps above the Town of Chamonix. It is a massive glacier with tributary glaciers feeding it from the Valle Blanche and Les Grandes Jorasses, (a mountain massif seen at the rear in the photo) The glacier is suffering from climate change issues and has reduced in depth over the years, the ice is largely covered by stone and rock which creates the striated look. It is amazing to see and photograph the mountains and this particular glacier which is iconic.Time
18th July 2015 at 12.09pm … rain was threatening and the clouds were dark. Dramatic conditions.Lighting
The weather was very cloudy over the surrounding peaks but there was good visibility and a little brightness. This was good because there was snow and ice in the image as well as dark ridges and buttresses of rock.Equipment
I used an Olympus XZ-1 compact zoom camera with an electronic viewfinder .. this camera allows various modes of shooting as well as manual operation .. I still have the camera and its ease of use and good results makes it a favourite where a small camera is required. It has a bright i.Zuiko zoom lens which is f/1.8 at the 28mm equivalent end and f/2.5 at the 112mm setting. Otherwise no other equipment was used.. My manual settings for the image were … ISO 100 … 1/250sec … FL 11.8mm (55mm equivalent) … f/6.3 I always take my photos in RAW and process them at home with Photoshop …Inspiration
I love Chamonix area, the mountains, valleys and town are beautiful. The Mer de Glace is particularly beautiful because of its S shape leading into the valleys behind. A perfect leading line for the eye with an amazing backdrop. The V shapes in the rock ridges lead the eye down to the far end of the S curve. The bushes in the foreground framed the point of view of the glacier well, so were included. The inspiration happened easily because I was in a favourite place and I just had to frame the view to my satisfaction and take the picture.Editing
My file was perfect for developing as a black and white image. I had plenty of detail on the dark areas and the light areas were well controlled. I developed the RAW image in colour and then converted it to black and white and saved it as a TIFF file. I used dodging and burning to accentuate the ridges and concentrate attention on the S curve and V shapes which were originally a flat dark colour, I tapered the dark towards grey on the mountains at the rear to maintain accuracy of how mountains appear in those areas and conditions. It was necessary to separate the ridges which originally appeared to be one dark area. The resultant image was a true representation of what I perceived on the day (minus colour)… I love black and white images.In my camera bag
I still have the Olympus XZ-1 in my arsenal but now use the Olympus Micro4/3 OMD EM1 mark1 and mark2 cameras which are weather resistant and amazing cameras with in-body Image Stabilisation and a variety of interchangeable Micro 4/3 lenses, one of these cameras with at least one suitable lens will be in one of my Think Tank camera bags together with a Black Rapid cross body strap for the camera and cleaning kit comprising a bulb blower, brush, soft microfibre cloth and a Zeiss lens wipe in case of a stubborn mark (which usually is not allowed to happen)Feedback
There is only one way to capture an image like this, you have to be out there at the right time and place and weather should not put you off. Seek to frame the image with a subject in mind and not just a picture. In this case, I was wanting to capture the mountains in a way which I could develop to use those 'rules' which we all know and adapt to suit our own purposes one of which is a leading line in the image to draw the viewer into the image. Rules are meant for the guidance of wise people but not for strict observance. Use an aperture and ISO which will give you good depth of field commensurate with available light. Then just concentrate on keeping the camera still and squeeze the shutter button in a controlled manner to maximise sharpness.