Icebergs

Spring normally brings sea ice and icebergs to the island of Newfoundland. This has been an unusually warm year in this part of the world and, according to reports from fisherpersons and scientists, there is little or no sea ice around northern Newfoundland and Labrador. A quick check on icebergfinder.com shows no active icebergs around our coast yet, though there are quite a few off Labrador according to Environment Canada's weather office.

I've chosen a few images to share with you today that were taken in May, 2008. It was a bumper year for icebergs but shortly after I made these images, the winds changed for a dew days, and I didn't get a chance to photograph any more that year. I didn't see any icebergs around this part of the island last year, though there was a huge one about an hour's drive from here that I didn't get to see.

I was interviewed about photographing icebergs on a local radio station a few years ago and the host asked me why I liked photographing icebergs. My response was that I found it exciting to photograph large chunks of ice that were formed around 10, 000 years ago and were now drifting south to melt into the ocean. They look like huge ice sculptures, sculpted by Mother Nature, that change shape on a daily basis.

I've been photographing icebergs for years and am always excited to make images of them from shore or from a boat. I have been close enough to an iceberg that I could reach out and touch it. When I think that the huge icebergs are much bigger under water (7/8 of its volume is submerged) I am amazed at their total size.

If you are interested: I have ten Iceberg Galleries on line at: http://www.lanephotography.com/icebergs/icebergs2.htm

I also created a short slide show of all the icebergs I photographed that year and uploaded it to my Blog on May 14, 2008. Feel free to check that out as well.