A sense of scale

As I mentioned in my previous post on our navigation of the Lemaire Channel, I was disappointed on processing my images that it was impossible to convey the sense of immensity of the landscape as there was no frame of reference to give a sense of scale. Once through the channel we anchored near Booth Island amid a crowd of icebergs and after a welcome breakfast headed off on a Zodiac cruise in search of wildlife and to get some more intimate views of the bergs from water level. This gave an opportunity to capture some images of icebergs with a Zodiac and passengers in the frame to give a sense of scale. None of of these icebergs were terribly large  but without something of known size for comparison it is hard to get an impression of their size.

Zodiac approaching an arched iceberg. Still some distance away in case of the arch collapsing
Zodiac approaching an arched iceberg. Still some distance away in case of the arch collapsing
Looking through the same arch at a Zodiac on the far side
Looking through the same arch at a Zodiac on the far side

Including people in the frame gives a much clearer impression of the scale as shown in the following few images.

ZodiacIcebergBoothIsland_D813545-web

ZodiacIcebergBoothIsland_D813581-web
The dirty ice on this iceberg is from it grounding on the seabed before rolling and revealing what was previously it’s deep surface
ZodiacBoothIslandIceberg_D813508-web
This iceberg is clearly much larger than the previous one

This next image of the detail on the side of an iceberg gives absolutely no impression of size and to my eye looks relatively small when seen in isolation.

Iceberg detail with no frame of reference
Iceberg detail with no frame of reference

As we passed around the iceberg the National Geographic Explorer was revealed indicating the scale. One of the crew on deck in front of the right funnel gives a human size for comparison.

A sense of scale is revealed by allowing comparison to a known object
A sense of scale is revealed by allowing comparison to a known object

Usually landscape images will include a recognisable object of known size even if only trees or shrubs but in Antarctica none of these familiar objects is in the landscape making it hard to convey a sense of scale and, as with the isolated iceberg detail, to me features appear a lot smaller than they were in life where the magnitude was quite overwhelming.

All images with Nikon D810 and 24-120mm f4 VR lens.

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