Below the Ice

Photographing objects within the ice using the E-M5 and Voigtlander - the what, where and how

Photographing what

None of these photos show objects or bubbles on top of the ice, instead all photographic subjects of all pics shown here are several inches below the surface.  The ice itself was clear enough to provide sort of a lens into the subsurface formations, though it also reflected light and was tricky to deal with.

Photographing where

We finally had a couple of nights with temps in the low double digits here in New Hampshire, the thermometer hovering around 10 or 11°F.  Add that to the nights which had already been under 32° and the river has begun to freeze over. 

Horizontal bubbles are pierced by blades of grass growing up from the bed of the river. The small bright circle is not a reflection, but another air bubble a couple of inches above the large one.

This afternoon I walked down to the river and found ice 2 - 3 inches thick. I know, because it froze almost completely clear and I was able to see air bubbles and debris right through the ice by which to judge the thickness. A few inches is plenty thick to support the weight of an adult. The Army Corps of Engineers says just 2" of ice are adequate to support the weight of a person.

The shadow of my camera lens darkens the area around these bubbles a couple inches below the surface. The silhouetted reflection of the camera on a small tripod is visible in the smallest bubble, as are the colors of dusk settling in over the river. 

One of the many unique properties of water is that ice becomes exponentially stronger with thickness. For example, if 2" of ice supports a 200 lb. person, 3" doesn't just support a 300 pounder. In fact, The Corps says 3" is enough to hold the weight of a snowmobile and 10" enough for an 8 ton truck. 

A horizontal bubble a couple of inches below the ice surface with vertically rising air bubbles trapped on their journey upwards.

When I bent down to examine the ice and saw several inches of thickness, I was not worried about falling in. What I did see though was clear, black ice with bubbles and bits of grass and other river debris deeper down.

One common 'scene' was horizontal bubbles which had formed a couple of inches below the surface and vertical bubbles consisting of tiny spiral needles. These spiral bubbles seem to have frozen in time & place as they rose toward the surface and provided an incredible sense of perspective to these mini-scenes.

It pays to look closely, from different angles & perspectives. Unless I had bent down to examine the thickness of the ice, I would have never noticed these formations.  As with all photography, which recommends we get closer to our subject (zoom with your feet), my zooming was done by getting down on my knees to examine the ice closeup.

Photographing how

Since I went down to the river in the late afternoon and the winter light was low, I thought I'd try the Voigtlander with the .95 aperture.  These shots were all taken with that lens on an Olympus OM-D E-M5 in this gloaming light. Sunset was at about 16:15 and the river lies beneath a large embankment, which gives a large area of indirect light.

As with many of us, I use various tripods, depending on the situation.  Two of them are very small travel units with fixed, not telescoping legs. One of those is genuinely tiny - it actually a plastic fold-out unit, small enough to fit in almost any pocket. Given it's light weight, it only supports the E-M5 with a very small lens, such as the Oly 17 or Panny 20.

As you can see in the setup shown here, I used my other small tripod which provides quite a bit of heft & weight and nicely counteracts the weight of the beefy Voigtlander. In fact, even with the weight of this full metal lens, I didn't need any weights on the tripod.

The nice thing about this setup, is how it places the lens perpendicular to the ground / ice and the lens just an inch or so from the surface if the ice itself.  And since the subjects, the air bubbles, were themselves 2 to 3 inches under the surface, this effectively placed the lens 3+ inches away.  I'm impressed the lens was able to focus on subjects so very close; I'll have to check what the closest focus distance is for this lens.

The close placement of the lens to the surface also minimized extraneous light from disturbing the shots and let me easily position the camera over any desired subjects. For some of the shots, I even had to tip the back leg of the tripod up to get the correct angle.

One minor problem was the shadow created by the lens, as it's pretty wide and obstructs quite a bit of light.  This results in a large dark circle over the ice, as seen in the second ice pic in this post.  I've cropped most of the much brighter, area outside of the lends shadow, away.

This was only an issue on some of the shots, depending on lens angle, amount of light in that area of the river, etc...  In fact for some of the shots, since I used the self timer to activate the shutter, my hands were free and I could position myself to completely block the brighter light with my body.  Crude but effective.

Another minor issue was the cold.  Usually when I use the E-M5 in the cold, it's on a strap around my neck and warmly secured underneath  my jacket until I pull it out for a shot.  This was different as the camera was out in the cold for the entire 30 minute shoot.  I did only use a single battery, but the camera registered a flashing red battery icon.  

I did have charged batteries in my pants pocket to keep them as close as possible to my body and hence the warmest possible.  However, I didn't need them, the red flashing battery lasted 30 minutes and that was good enough.

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Given the close focusing nature of the Voigtlander, it should be possible to use it for other sorts of close ups and the wide aperture should let in plenty of light, even with the lens physically blocking some of it at close proximity.

I'd like to try these same shots with a macro lens to see if that changes the perspective. Perhaps it's possible to get closer to the formations in the ice with a macro?

Norway - The Rorbuer

Our Norwegian home was a rorbu - a cabin;  refurbished from raw, working, fisherman's hut to tourist cottage.

Some of the robuer where we stayed in Reine, the right most rorbu is on stilts. Those are fish (drying) racks in the foreground.

Traditionally, rorbuer (plural) consisted of just a couple rooms; a working / storage area and sleeping quarters. Fishermen often stayed 2 or 3 to a cabin, perhaps sleeping head-to-toe to maximize sleeping space. 

In this rainy view, you can still make out the stilts on which this rorbu has been built

Nice views even at night

The basic layout of a rorbu hasn't really changed too much in probably hundreds of years. Even today, they're typically refurbished without the level of luxury one might expect of a nice hotel room. The one we occupied was well furnished; simply, yet beautifully, in wood - wooden floors, wooden walls and otherwise rustic wooden furnishings. It was simple and functional in an attractively and uniquely Scandinavian way.  It was fundamentally cozy, comfortable, traditional (I suspect they all are) and offered stunning views around Reine Harbor.

Drying racks and walkways to the stilted rorbuer

Rorbuer are usually situated partly on the rocky shore and partly on stilts in the water, the latter to enable docking of the fishermen's row boats. Many of them are covered with two kinds of roofing materials; slate shingles and grass. The latter is so traditional, I even noticed one local guy had gone to the trouble of constructing a tiny little grass roof over his mailbox. 

Sod roofs and slate shingles are the norm

What about this word, Rorbu?   It seems bu is Norwegian for little house, though it may also be an alteration of the word bo - to live.  The word is used in similar contexts, such as redskabpsbu -  tool shed.   

Our domicile in Reine

As for the first syllable, it's ro as in rowing, a reference to the fact that all early fishing was conducted from rowboats. Apparently in Norwegian there is the concept of 'rowing fish', which is present in modern Norwegian in the phrase 'ro fiske' - I heard locals might even use a phrase like 'Lets go row some fish,' even though they may indeed head out in a motorized boat. 

But why fishing cabins built for overnights?  Why not just return home in the evening? 

Apparently, the winter fishing in the Lofotens is so rich with Cod and other species, that fisherman would travel from far away to participate.  They'd supposedly row their open boats for weeks to get to the islands and Lofoten became a destination.  

Fish drying racks are not old-fashioned relics, but are in use today and found everywhere you find rorbuer

It's said that in an effort to support the burgeoning fishing industry in the early 1100s, King Øystein Magnusson had cabins built in Kabelvåg (formerly Vågar)  for the migrant fishermen. I suppose this is some sort of an indication of just how long rorbuer have been around and how important fishing was to the Lofoten.

The rowboats are beautiful.  We saw them stowed underneath many rorbuer.

Why does it seem all of the cabins are red?  National color of Norway?  No, apparently red fish oil paint was the least expensive and therefore the most used color.  At some point the burnt yellow (ochre?) came into use as well.  Today, it seems all rorbuer are either red or yellow and I'm guessing the colorations represent more of an upholding of tradition, than a need to paint inexpensively. 

Gorgeous wood work on these rowboats.  Hard to imagine putting out to sea, The North Sea, in these little things.

As we drove around, it seemed every village, no matter how small, offered tourist rorbuer. For those wishing to stay in The Lofoten, it seems picking the village / area where you'd like to stay is the defining factor, not the availability of rorbuer. 

Our time in Norway and especially in Reine was so delightful, we're already scheming about going back.

Some Links about rorbuer

• Tripadvisor reviews of Reine Rorbuer (where we stayed)

• Rorbuer history

• Brief history of rorbuer

• Another history of rorbuer

• Website for Reine Rorbuer - the place we stayed

Norway - Ferry To Moskenes

Nothing says adventure like putting out to sea.  Monday afternoon was that time and we were finally ready for the final leg to our actual destination. 

A view from the ferry in a roughly southern direction, having left Bodo 20 minutes ago

From Bodo, a 3+ hour ferry ride brought us to Moskenes, the southernmost ferry port on the main chain of the Lofoten Islands.

Yellow dots show Moskenen, the southern Lofoten ferry port. Topo overview from Apple Maps, detailed map from Norgeskart.no

There is actually ferry service to some outlying, inhabited islands, such as Sørland, not connected by road to the main island chain.

Just leaving the port of Bodo, the ferry sailed past this hamlet, a tiny enclave called Kvalvika

Immediately upon entering the passenger area of the ferry, we got a sense of just how cold North Atlantic travel is, compared our more southern latitudes. Rescue gear on these ferries is quite a bit more serious than the life vests or even rescue rings we're used to seeing.  

On break.  I wonder if that's his dry-suit hanging over the railing?

Instead, we were greeted by full-body, dry, survival suits.  I guess the idea is that, as the ship is sinking, you need to allocate time to get yourself completely zipped into one of those things!  I just read where the waters in the Bering Straits was 12º F, so I wouldn't necessarily want to test the temperatures around Norway.

Rocky desolation - the ferry leaves Bodø harbor passing right by many, seemingly uninhabited, rocky islands.  

While the ferry ride itself is pretty average, the departure from Bodo is scenic and the view arriving in the Lofotens is spectacular. 

A classic and beautifully simple Norwegian scene - this house on the rocky bluff overlooking the fjord.

Given a late evening arrival in early September, we figured the sun would be setting at a similar time to our native New England.  We were wrong.  This far north of the Arctic Circle, early September sunrise & sunset times are more like New England summer time sunsets.  Although the ferry didn't arrive until 9pm, the sun was just setting behind the mountain chain which makes up the Lofoten Islands.  

Sunset over the the mountains which comprise the Lofoten Island chain - this was the view from the ferry as we approached Moskenes.

As the ferry got closer the islands, this produced dramatic silhouettes of the mountains.  Despite a bitingly cold, north sea wind, many people were on deck taking photos.  What a great way to celebrate our first arrival in the Lofotens; beautiful sunset,  shadows hiding much of the detail, leaving us with tantalizing glimpses of what was to be enjoyed the next day.

Norway - To Bodø

In the spirit of making the journey itself interesting, we decided not to fly the Oslo-Bodo leg, though we could have flown from Oslo to Bodo in less than two hours.  But Sara had never been on an overnight train, so we decided to take a train from Oslo to Bodo.

Sara was thrilled with the overnight accommodations, she wasted no time texting about the experience

For Sara, this was the realization of a bucket list item.  The idea of our own cabin for an overnight  trip was sort of romantic.  Of course the cabins were tiny, with small bunks ...the the single kind.  How romantic is that?  I think my summer camp bunk, built for a kid, was larger than the one in the train cabin.

An Apple maps screenshot showing our final destination in Reine on the end of the Lofoten Island chain

As you can see, Oslo to Bodø is not a short jaunt.  Bodo (not marked) lies directly across the bay from our final destination at Reine (red pin). This leg of our journey had us departing Oslo at 16:00 and arriving Bodo at 9 or so the next morning, with a change in Trondheim to get on the sleeper car. As you might imagine of the Scandinavians, trains are clean, efficient and depart with hair-trigger accuracy.  A few hours north of Oslo, I saw this lake (or fjord?) and just had enough time to snatch & click the camera for this moody, dusk scene.

It ended up being quite a bit of time on the train in order to fulfill a bucket list wish.  But, the spectacular early morning views approaching Bodo along Skjerstadfjorden made up for the long train bound hours. This capture from OpenStreetMaps shows the fjord along which the train approaches Bodø.

OpenStreetMaps showing the fjord, Skjerstadfjorden, which the train skirts on approach to Bodø

One things about photography and trains - it's really difficult to snap photos from a moving train. You never know when scenery will flash by next, what nearby obstacles will impede a distant view, if the reflections in the window are too strong or the dirty window too dirty.  I tried nonetheless. After all, digital photography is about nothing if not experimentation.  And, despite constantly changing light, reflections, etc... I got a few that I like.

This is tidal water and it's out

Since it carries the word 'fjorden' as part of the name, I expected to somehow be riding around the edge of steep, glacially carved walls jutting up from the water.  Instead, the train skirts around a gently, even pastorally sloping shoreline of Skjerstadfjorden.  It was actually more delightful than dramatic.

In the next post:  Spending the day in Bodø

Norway - Walking Around Oslo

After an early morning jog along an already busy harbor, we headed to the old town area.  Still jet lagged on Sunday, cramped & fraught with sciatic pain from sitting most of the previous day, we spent Sunday on foot, be-bopping around the city. (No one uses that turn of phrase any more, but maybe I can reintroduce it ;)  We hoped to use some sightseeing to stretch our legs & backs and also get some exercise before the overnight train ride to Bodø.

This night view of Akerhus was actually taken on our last night in Oslo, a week after first visiting the fortress.

There we found an old fortress, built upon a bluff, which must have conferred some defensive advantage in the days when cannons benefited from elevated positions.  It turned out to be Akershus Fortress, a landmark fortification constructed before 1300 AD to stand guard over Oslo. 

Fortress guards seem to be both ceremonial and functional, yet there's no separation between tourists and patrols.

To us, the strange thing about the fort is the dual historical-tourist and active-use nature of the installation.  Signs appeared to identify it as the headquarters for the Norwegian military, not just the military of 300 hundred years ago.  It appeared to be the current headquarters of The Ministry of Defense.  Strange then, that they'd let us tourists walk around the place.

View from Akerhus across Oslo Harbor

So we walked boldly in, as if we owned this Norwegian Pentagon.  Perhaps the best aspect of this fort is the striking position (pun intended) it occupies above Oslo harbor.  The views across the harbor are stupendous, made all the more so by the surprise of finding this  place.

Sara peers through an opening in the old fortress wall

Akerhus Fortress turns out to serve many functions:  museum, national, historical symbol of Norwegian seat of government, erstwhile prison, church for the military, burial ground for royalty, current military HQ, site of official events/dinners for visiting dignitaries and military museum.

Map from Norgeskart - find it at kart.statkart.no

Note:  For accurate, interesting and above all, detailed online maps of Norway, visit the fabulous Norgeskart.  The site identifies the maps as being in beta status, but I found them accurate and full of details I was unable to find anywhere else online.  They seem to be available in Norwegian & English and possibly other languages as well.

After walking around Akerhus, we followed the meandering harbor edge around to the Oslo Opera House.  What a magnificent structure!  Some architects went crazy designing this place, creating an enormously striking piece of work.  In fact, the structure has been awarded prizes celebrating the unique architecture.  

Dramatic lines & angles lead the eye on a visual smorgasbord that's a special feast for photographers 

To paraphrase the Visit Norway site, the Opera House is itself a work of art. More than a just place to hear music, the opera house is destination for both tourists & locals.  Dramatic, modern lines, all cut in stone & glass are a feast for the eyes and fun to explore. No two sides, angles or walls of the building are the same.  

Opera house from across the harbor

From across the harbor, it seems that if parents let go of their child's stroller, it would roll down the angled slope, right into the water.  However, several cleverly designed breaks in the stonework, which don't detract from the overall slope, preclude this from happening. 

Plenty of locals seem to visit the Opera House as a Sunday afternoon hangout

The layout invites you to walk right up to the roof, from where you have sweet views across the old-town part of the city.  Undoubtedly, the architects intended the opera house as a modernistic backdrop to the hundreds-year old buildings around it.  

Dramatic lines lead the eye and the visitor right up to the fantastic roof-top viewing area

In fact, one of my favorite scenes shows the reflection of a very old hotel in the modernistic windows which make up one of the opera house walls.  What a cool juxtaposition of old & new.

Modern windows mirror the old

Some want to look in, but the outside views are interesting

So much to see, just depends on where you focus

Most of the afternoon had passed by the time we walked around the fortress and opera house.  The train north to Bodø was scheduled to leave late in the afternoon, so we walked from the Opera House to the nearby central train station, where we had our bags stashed in a locker.  (yes, some places still let you keep your stuff in lockers)

More on the overnight train to Bodø in the next post...

Norway - First Night in Oslo

Oslo seems comfortably small, but the downtown is vibrant, with a mix of old and modern.

We walked around town that first night, listened to some street performers, gawked at the royal palace and found a great Asian place for dinner.  The idea was just to stay busy so our bodies become acclimated to the local time zone, rather than pushing right on to our final destination in the Lofotens.

A stranger 'stands guard' in front of the royal palace.  Yes, officially at least, Norway is ruled by royalty.

Norway is ruled by King Harald V, though as you might imagine, his rule is titular only.  However, he does remind me of an interesting modern techno aspect to his name.  The name Harald has figured prominently in Scandinavian royalty for millennia.  A former King of Denmark & Norway, was Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson.  

Rumors as to the origin of the Bluetooth name stem from a bad tooth, blue as a way of saying dark ( as in dark chieftain), royal blue clothing and more...  Regardless, he is said to have united Denmark and Norway. 

When Ericcson, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia planned technology to unify communications between disparate devices (computers, phones, printers, etc...) Bluetooth as a moniker to celebrate th unification of these devices.  In his honor, the current Bluetooth technology symbol is comprised of Runic version of the letters H + B, Harald Bluetooth.

The real royal guard at the royal palace.  This one was a woman.

For those of us coming from the U.S., food is extraordinarily expensive in Scandinavia and Norway is no exception.  I don't know if it's stems from the exchange rate or perhaps a high level of expensive importation into the northern countries.

Whatever the cause, eating dinner at a decent, though not outstanding restaurant easily runs over $100 dollars for a couple.  Our first dinner at an Asian place hit the card at about a buck twenty.  That's with only a beer each and no desert.

Royal Palace guard

If you then consider being on the road in Norway for 10 days or so, this sort of trip is not for the financial faint-of-heart.  Thankfully, I'm married to a woman who's travel philosophy includes the mantra; 'Just don't think too much about how much it costs.' 

Norway - Oslo Bound

The Lofoten Island archipelago is wildly raw and breathtakingly beautiful. The islands have been rated one of the most desirable areas to visit in the world and the town of Reine rated the most beautiful village in the world.  

Looking from Tind back across the town of Å towards (lake) Ågvatnet behind the hill

I'm not one to act on ratings.  In fact, my desire to visit stemmed from a travel article & photo I saw years ago.  This trip was a fulfillment of that desire, the realization of a bucket list item.  ...and whether or not you choose to believe ratings, The Lofoten Archipelago is magical.

Our ultimate destination was far north of the arctic circle.  Therefore, traveling to the Lofotens is more than a one-day travel affair, especially coming from outside of Europe. 

Arctic map view from CIA World maps online; Lofoten Islands and Arctic Circle markings added

We landed in the fog at Amsterdam's Schipol, before transferring to the Oslo flight.  This had us arriving at our Oslo hotel about 24 hours after leaving our house on the east coast of the U.S.

Landing at Amsterdam Schipol

Whenever getting to a destination involves multiple days, it's worth making the journey itself interesting, not focus just on the destination.  My wife & I did this with our journey to the Lofotens.  This is part of the reason we stopped over in Oslo;  it's a chance to see a new city and acclimate to the new time zone.

More on Oslo in the next post...

Trans Siberian Orchestra with m4/3

Shooting a concert with micro 4/3 - the Olympus OM-D E-M5 

I like how everything works to isolate the blond head of this rocker, even the other one is silhouetted and the audience is partly hidden

We saw the TSO tonight and what a show!  As always, TSO puts on a spectacle of incredible music, showmanship, storytelling, flames, smoke, lasers and more.  Playing everything from Bach to Zeppelin, they wowed us for 2 ½ hours at the TD Garden in Boston. 

I really liked the interaction between gazing crowd and rockers flaunting all they've got 

This time I brought my camera, an m4/3 Oly and put it to the test in these somewhat demanding conditions. 

For the photographically curious, all shots are from the single vantage point of our seats in the balcony, so the point of view doesn't change across all of these compositions. I don't know how far it was from our seats to the stage, but it was some considerable distance, perhaps 40 yards / meters.   

One of the rockers is this woman, who's profiled so dramatically against the lighting rigs

To reach across that distance, these were all shot with an Olympus 45mm 1.8 lens mounted on an OM-D E-M5. This little lens is really great, it's sort of a mini-telephoto, but the lens itself is downright tiny.  The entire camera + lens setup is almost, but not quite small enough to fit in a coat pocket.

Given the interaction between crowd and stage, it's possible to overlook the guy up on the rig

I was particularly excited that the camera could shoot so well from such a distance and do so in alternating dark & super-bright circumstances.  

Straight light beam lines contrast the freedom & wildness of the dancers

The OM-D is not new and it's well known as a tool which renders colors well. But capturing the myriad colors and ever changing brightness generated by the concert lighting system is quite a nice test. It's a testament to the ability of this sensor and this glass to reproduce this color and these details so nicely. 

As you may discern from the variable sizes of these snaps, these are all cropped down. All were processed using Apple Aperture, my favorite post processing tool. Too bad it's going away. I really hope the replacement is equally powerful and easy to use. 

One of my favorite shots;  the musician bowing, as if in abeyance to the crowd, upward lights symbolizing their gaze

One of my favorite shots in this series;  the musician bowing, as if in abeyance, to the crowd, upward lights symbolizing their gaze.  This composition doesn't render especially well on mobile  phones in portrait orientation, it's a bit too dark.  Perhaps I should have brightened up the rocker a little bit, to emphasize his figure a bit more, but I tried not to radically change any of these pics.

Almost of these shots were enhanced with sharpness, some with a tiny bit of definition, many with a white balance adjustment and all were cropped down in some fashion.

While I first began shooting at ISO 650, I quickly realized that's way too high.  It would expose too much.  Having some aspects of a composition in the dark, lends them a sense of mystery. Shooting at lower ISOs let me expose for the bright spots, leaving parts in the shadows, so I reduced the ISO to 400. 

Before the end of the concert, I'd further reduced it to 200, the lowest setting on my OM-D.  Most of the shots here were taken at ISO 200 with a shutter speed of 200 using spot metering.  The exposure compensation I dialed individually for each shot, depending on how nice the contrast looked through the view finder.

Part of the climax, most musicians are on stage, lights are going crazy

Of course I was also thinking of the dramatically reduced noise I'd get with ISO 200 vs 640.  The low noise levels may not be readily discernible in these reproductions, as they're a) JPEGs and b) reduced to 1500 pixels for web hosting, so they're a bit different from the original RAW files.

I particularly like how the yellow highlights a few audience members, connecting them to the guitarist

Now that I've seen what the 45mm lens does, I'd really like to try the put the Oly 7mm 1.8 to the test under these conditions. I supposed, given similar seats, I could really get some close up shots of the performers, though I wonder if it'd be too close to also include some of the scene. 

Some I processed as B&W, mainly because I felt that color detracted from a few individual compositions.

Not sure why, but these audience members seem frozen in time, as if characters captured in a painting 

Perhaps it's the very white, almost coherent nature of the lights upon the audience, but they do seem sort of frozen in time, similar to scenes I've seen in some old paintings.

Sometime I'd really enjoy shooting a concert with the ability to walk around, perhaps with a press pass or similar access, so I could get really close to the action.  This spectacle features too many pyrotechnics for that to work, but for a bit more mellow show, that'd be quite a photographic adventure.

 I have to say the Olympus made it reasonably easy to get some shots with which I am quite happy.  ...and ultimately, I take these for myself. Olympus marketing won't want to hear this, but I'm not sure how the improved E-M1 could have made this experience much better.

See sandtosnow.net/blog for other photography commentary