Spinning Wool Under The Glacier

Title

Spinning Wool Under The Glacier

Artist

Mike Berenson

Medium

Photograph

Description

In a nice surprise while I was in Iceland, I ran into a group on my ice cave tour where the group leader entertained his group by "spinning wool" under the glacier. It was a real treat and my first clue that it was coming (funny enough) came from my spotting a wire whisk sticking out of his backpack.

I was already excited about the coming ice cave tour. And while I'd seen my fair share of this wool spinning technique where you burn some steel wool inside a wire whisk and spin it, seeing it inside an ice cave was something else! All those reflections of the sparks on the icy walls were indeed a sight to see!

This image was captured during an ice cave tour under the Vatnajökull Glacier on the south coast of Iceland.

How I Got The Shot
The group leader who was spinning the wool offered some suggestions on manual settings to his group. And at first I followed his advice but I soon switched to an aperture priority setting with a series of 3 bracketed shots. I felt this gave me better flexibility in the quickly changing environment I was in. So that said, I worked this composition to show a bit more of the ice cave setting - making sure to include the river and plenty of reflections on the icy patterned ceiling.

In processing the image, I found once again that Nik's Color Efex Pro does a great job of bringing out the patterns in those icy walls of the glacial underground. I also found that on its own, it was simply too strong. I had to tone it down with a reduced opacity to get an appearance I liked. Besides that, I also added some subtle curves adjustment layers to tone down the brighter areas - bringing out even more of that beautiful color in the glacial ice.

Photo Gear
• Camera Body - Nikon D800 Digital SLR Camera
• Camera Lens - Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC Wide-Angle Lens for Nikon
• Tripod Head - Acratech GV2 Ball Head / Gimbal Head with Lever Clamp & Acratech Large Leveling Base
• Tripod Legs - FEISOL Elite CT-3472 Rapid Tripod Legs
• Remote Trigger - Vello Shutterboss Version II Timer Remote Switch for Nikon with 10-Pin Connection

Exposure Settings - Single Exposure Image
• ISO:800
• Aperture: f/8
• Shutter Speed: 0.5 seconds

Uploaded

February 17th, 2015

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