Picture Story
A truly unique and fantastic way to see wildlife and extraordinary scenery is to take an expedition cruise. In fact, I have been on a few as they have been so rewarding in photography of landscapes and the indigenous animals of the region visited. Up close encounters with polar bears, walrus, reindeer and so on in the Arctic and the various species of penguins, whales and seals in the Antarctic.
This image was taken during an Arctic expedition to the Canadian Arctic and Greenland. Once we reached Greenland, we had the opportunity to encounter various icebergs. Interestingly, the Arctic icebergs – at least the ones we saw – tend to be relatively smaller than those in the Antarctic!
Nonetheless, they are spectacular in their own way. I was pretty surprised with how blue the icebergs tend to be, as is the case with this example. Most of us think of icebergs as white, but they come in shades of bright blue and dark green. Some are even striped.
"Most icebergs are white — with a hint of blue," said Professor Steve Warren of the University of Washington, who studies how sunlight interacts with ice. This is because they are made of snow and 'glacier ice', which is compressed snow.
While a small amount of light reflects from the surface of an iceberg, most of it enters the iceberg and interacts with snow particles and bubbles of air trapped in the glacier ice. The longer the path light travels in ice, the bluer it appears.
Also, most people know that about 75% of the iceberg (think Titanic) is below the waterline, and it's much more impressive.
In this image, the rear icebergs show reflections, not the underwater portion (we weren't close enough); however, the smaller one in the forefront gives you a peak at what the underwater part is.
This particular day was extremely overcast and looked like it would pour at any moment, creating a very dramatic sky.
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Dimitri Vasileiou • Editor