Dark Blue Sun

The inside of an ice cave melts away into the stream below, back-lit by the relative brightness of a distant sunlight. 3 exposures blended. Most of the image was 30 seconds at f/18 but pieces of 2.5 minute and 1/15 second exposures were selectively painted in to control dynamic range. Additionally, flare had been a problem so I used another blend coming from an image where I blocked it out and painted that over the base exposure.

 

It sure was a nice spot to spend about an hour. It was 85 degrees outside - one of the hottest days of the year, but a cool 45 or so inside the caves. A good thing the ceiling didn't collapse during that hour though ;-)

 

Thanks for your comments.

Thanks for commenting.

this is absolutely stunning Marc. you've captured a part of nature hardly anyone will get to see in the flesh. the cathederal like ceiling and melt water looks fantastic. thanks for sharing.

Wow. Marc, you can add this and Eternal Light to my list of favorites of yours. Just superb. The lines from the drips add such a nice rhythm to the scene here, unique and special. What I would give to spend weeks out exploring...

 

I see you're making good use of my twilight shooting methods too ;) The results are rather spectacular.

Yes, I end up mentioning your night stuff to pretty much everyone. It's amazing what you can do with new technologies in this aspect of photography. Not so much exploring these last couple weeks though - just leading tours. This was taken on a tour, as was the other you mention. I find a lot of joy in showing people places like this though. My next couple weeks exploring will have to wait until the end of next month, but that will be something very special indeed.

wonderful exposure and composition , light are great ,thanks for share

A real good place to photograph, I guess, there can be some very interesting light conditions inside. the burned out centre of the image is a little disturbing, in my opinion.

Well, going to places like this for a tour has to be fun! You should get a house in the southern hemisphere... then you can perpetually be in snowstorms :)

Marc, I am very dissatisfied with your latest work. You are getting better and better!!!!!! How can we compete with you when you were allready way ahead of us??! :-))

 

No seriously now, I really like the creative approach when it comes to subject photographed. You technical quality has been solid proof for a while now. Your compositions were also very creative(and inspirative). And now you are picking(and capturing) more and more interesting motives.

In case I'm not clear, I put it in different words.

 

For example, I consider this one a typical (well mastered) US landscape photo:

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=4686494

 

On the other hand, these are photos that don't remind me of anything else but you and your work - and I say to myself "wow, where and how did he get this shot?":

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=9617631

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8855609

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8844926

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8867563

 

and of course Dark Blue Sun ;-)

 

Anyway, just wanted to show my respect and wish luck.

 

Lukas

Zsolt, thanks for your comment/critique. Since I have the exposures to do whatever I want with the cave opening in the distance (brighter or darker if I want to) I played around with it quite a bit and found this is what I liked best. I could certainly make it darker though. Not to suggest your monitor is uncalibrated, but I'd like to make sure anyone viewing this photo can see the faintest blue layer surrounding the white light entering the cave. If you can't see some very light blues there, I could see why it would appear too bright. I'll look at darkening that area slightly and reducing the sun-star-like effect and see what I think.

 

Thanks.

Floris,

 

I want to do that someday, although a cabin in the Brooks range would also be nice :-) I gave up on hot weather completely long ago. Summer is just not my thing. Patagonia sounds nice come June.

 

Lucas, thanks. The 'other' stuff intrigues me most these days. In a couple weeks, when I'm able to actually get back to processing and away from a lot of other obligations I'll post some more new imagery, some of which is very different from anything you see here and I'm quite happy with. I've hardly had any time to spend on the forums lately though. As for the 'how' I did whatever it is, I always try to answer such questions and post a good bit of info up front on each shot. I want to share the imagery first and foremost but have no problem disclosing any of my techniques. I encourage anyone to ask questions if interested. Thanks.

 

 

wow, Marc.

Nice to meet you.

This photo is splendid...but, how did you reached this place?

 

Reallly splendid.

Oh my god! seems a movie scene!! magic!! regards!

'flare is a problem' I always have this kind of problem while using filters ...

You manage it very well here marc ... I like the view ;)

very interesting.

great capture.

amazing work!

Absolute amazing! Angle, light, composition, ... superb, really

Wow Marc...

absolutely amazing work Marc. Unique subject captured uniquely in a mastery work. great work.