Winter landscapes

A wintry take on the slow shutter panning technique gives us the sense of winter but smoothes out the details. This shot was taken at 1/2 sec shutter speed, any longer on the shutter speed and it might’ve been too blurry to discern the trees, but any slower and it would have looked like unintentional camera blur. The vertical panning motion suits the tall trees well, as it allows them to stretch out above and below their normal positions. The white snow plays a contrast to the dark, blackened trunks.

There's interest through every section of this image, starting at the bottom and leading all the way to the top. The Canadian peaks in the distance are glowing with purple hues which gradually fade into the sky. That colour is also reflected all across the frozen lake beneath. The methane bubbles trapped in the ice really make the foreground come alive, they make such unique shapes as they morph together. The cracked lines rip through our foreground and draw the eye up, towards the mountains.

We couldn't have put it any better ourselves, hear straight from the horse's mouth why we love this shot. “The black sand dunes and mountains of South East Iceland where there is an ongoing war of attrition between the elements which have shaped this landscape. A winter's morning with sub zero temperatures, a hint of sunshine and clarity in the sky [is] a perfect moment to capture the spectacle of dunes, beach, sea and mountains in this untouched area of [the country]. A [long] depth of field, a wide angle lens, and finding a good location to capture the vista are among the most important technical challenges.”

You could be mistaken, as we were, for thinking this was taken in the middle of a country field. But actually, taken from 11 floors up in a high rise block, the photographer has done well to frame out any extraneous details. Upon closer inspection the photo does actually tell you more about its location than at first glance. At the edges of the photo the snow is worn to an almost grey sludge, which tells us there's concrete laying underneath. The block-cut shrubs and trees gives the impression of structure and uniformity, much like the high-rise block itself. But a sense of freedom and wandering is given with the inclusion of the desire lines trodden into the snow.