Glacier Ice

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Glacier Ice washed up on the beach near Aialik Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park

-- Mark Erickson (maericks@netcom.com), December 26, 1998

Answers

Interesting contrast between the ice and the rocks, in fact, strange contrast - the ice seems to be in full sun, but the rocks are in full shade! The ice appears to float over the rocks.

Please tell me what kind of film you used, I've been looking for a slide film that will stay neutral in full shade for quite a while now and your image shows just the kind of color balance I'm looking for.

As to the composition, the centered subject does nothing for me, the image has no dynamics, no sense of going anywhere. All the action is in the dead center.

Frank

-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), December 27, 1998.


Thanks for the comments. The shot was taken in on a beach with overcast skies. The granite rocks on the beach were extremely dark, and the ice was a very clear fragment of glacier ice that had washed up on the beach. I'm pretty sure I shot it with Velvia, but there's a small chance that it was Provia 100. On the composition side, I was looking for a texture and contrasting materials shot, so it was meant to be static. I'm still trying to figure out how to present these kinds of images. If anyone has any cropping advice for this image I'd love to read it.

-- Mark Erickson (maericks@netcom.com), December 27, 1998.

Mark,

I really can't help you with cropping this image, I don't see any way to work with it unless very severely cropped and that's against my better judgement as image quality will suffer. May I suggest, however, that for future such shots you don't have to "get it all in". A dramatic composition could have been made with just part of the ice against the stones.

Frank

-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), December 28, 1998.


I agree with Frank. A classic error of judgement is to include too much. Our minds see more selectively than our eyes. What exactly is it that your mind is sees here? Because of the inclusion of too much, you fail to communicate. Photography is a universal language and as such its only purpose is to communicate. As with any language, the greater the forethought, the more effective the communique. I am constantly wrestling with this concept. Perhaps we all are.

Move in!

-- Clifton Leon (lightwriter@softcom.net), January 04, 1999.


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