:: Digital Photography & Imaging

(Picture taken from National Geographic. Click on the image to view the higher resolution version)

This photo above shows a large glistening iceberg calved from the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland drifts through Disko Bay on its way to the Atlantic Ocean. It is taken by James Balog on a project to capture global warming in the act using 26 solar-powered cameras, taking time-lapse photographs of glaciers in the Atlantic Ocean. It will produce more than 300,000 photos over the course of two years to alter public perception of the global warming issue.

The above photo is just one of the photos to illustrate the effect of the rising temperature in the atmosphere. It clearly illustrates the realism of the situation by showing the melting of the iceberg gradually.

Aesthetically, I feel that the photographer has applied the rule of third successfully for the viewers to perceive the melting of the iceberg by the blazing sun due to depletion of the ozone layer. It also brings the focus of the 2 main objects (the sun and the iceberg) in the photo to the viewers.

In terms of the light quality, the light source for this photo comes from the natural source (i.e. the sun). Clear enough, the direction is from the top as it can be identified from the brightened up portion of the iceberg.

Focusing on the details of the iceberg, you would be able to feel the rough texture. Due to the fact that this is an iceberg, it automatically tells us that it has a hard texture as well. This kind of feeling is based on individual’s subjective experience which is outlined in the theory and aesthetics of photography.

Moving on to talk about the focus, I feel that the photo is in sharp focus as it clearly shows the outline and details of the iceberg. The photo gives me a cool feeling as majority of the colours portray in the photo are cool colours except for the emphasis of the scorching sun which brings out the main idea of global warming in the Atlantic Ocean.

As for the point of view in this photograph, it is a straight shot from far, but due to the gigantic size of the iceberg, it adds on perspective effect to the photo, which will give viewers a feeling that it is shot from a low angle.

I feel that the photographer has chosen to include only the sun and one gigantic iceberg (i.e. the Jakobshavn Glacier) and choose to exclude other smaller icebergs is because of the emphasis of one particular iceberg is stronger than a mass amount of smaller disconnected icebergs. By doing so, it would draw a stronger climactic attention to the viewers.

Overall, I feel that this is an excellent piece of work as the photographer considers all element of aesthetic to further elaborate the seriousness of the situation, and to bring across the message to the whole world to prevent further harm to the atmosphere.