This is one of those scenes that gets done over and over in the photographic world to the point of cliché, but for good reason. When the conditions are right (and they have to be right) this scene brings together both the power of nature and the resistance of humankind against it, into a single frame.
Being there when this is occurring is one thing, but being able to capture it with such drama, is entirely another. So, it may be cliché, but it's always delightful when I see an image that takes something done many times before and elevates it further. This is absolutely one of those images and the monochrome conversion really adds to the impressiveness of the scene, elevating it from merely representational to something that is truly worthy of the term 'art'.
There was a lot of competition for the top spot and I'm not ashamed to admit that my mind changed several times over, but I eventually landed on this image because of the reasons I outlined above. It takes skill to take a familiar scene and create something that stands above the rest.
With that in mind, and the sheer drama you've captured, hammering home the metaphor of man vs nature, this is a worthy winner that demonstrates your skill and tenacity as photographer. Congratulations and thank you for sharing!
Top-down drone photography can be a little lazy at times because there is novelty in a birds-eye view of the landscape rather than the more familiar eye-level composition, and there are plenty of drone shot that leave a lot to be desired. However, this is not one of those images, demonstrating what is truly exciting about drone photography -- finding abstract in the mundane.
From eye level there would be little to see here and no real way of demonstrating the symbolic relationship between both the road and the river, but from above that relationship becomes the heart of the image.
It demonstrates the tension between the natural world and the manmade element, elevated by the blanket of snow on the ground. The monochrome conversion elevates this contrast further with the dark road and river seemingly cutting through the bright, uniform snow. This is aided by the strong, directional lighting as well as your composition.
An impressive image that has benefitted from strong processing choices and demonstrates the best side of drone photography, thank you for sharing!
Brief
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**This contest is open to photographers ranked 1001+ in this week’s <a href="https://www.photocrowd.com/photographer-community/">Leaderboard</a>.** This is landscape photography stripped back to tone and form. Some of us need a reminder not to forget black and white photography, now that we shoot everything digitally in colour. How does your vibrant landscape respond to the desaturated treatment - what is improved, and what is lost? Landscape photography covers many types of location, but here we’ll focus more on natural, non-urban scenes, which may include some evidence of human habitation and activity.
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This is one of those image that really benefits from a monochrome conversion because it distills the image down to its basic elements and relies upon the highlights and the shadows to tell the story.
Although I'm sure the scene would still look good in colour, there is something so satisfying about the strong contrast between the bright uniformity of the snow and ice on the surface of the lake and the dark, ominous cracks that have appears in the ice. Your composition is spot on, allowing those insidious cracks to guide the eye into the frame and distant mountains.
There is a hi-key feel to your editing process and the image is all the better for it, speaking to the stark, barren landscape of Svalbard and its inhospitable nature.
An image that demonstrates your talent in terms of composition and processing, and very much worthy of a top ten position.
