One of my goals during my recent Iceland trip was to capture a photograph of an ice cave.

The ice cave was an optional location offered as part of our photography tour. Since I was visiting Iceland in February and the ice cave is located about 275 miles from Reykjavik, I was expecting the location to be somewhat remote and free of crowds. Then, I received the following information from our tour leader:

"The regular ice cave has become very popular and has become busy in recent years.  As you can imagine it can be difficult to do photography with 20 people around us in a tight space.  I am trying to arrange an early tour with one of the companies.  They will take us out at 07.00 when it is still dark.  We could have the cave to ourselves for an hour before the crowds arrive.  This special arrangement will cost $277 USD - $77 more than the standard tour that you have paid for."

The ice cave tour guide published the following warning:

"Please note!  We will not be the only group visiting the ice cave. This has become incredibly popular winter activity in Iceland.  Other tour companies bring guests to visit the cave which can cause it to be crowded. Please expect to share the cave with additional groups."

I found this information alarming for a few reasons:

• I didn't expect this ice cave to be so crowded given the time of year, the remote location and the high cost of getting there.
• The sunrise is 9:00 am in Iceland on that day. I was disappointed to learn that we would be inside the cave in the dark. No wonder it would be less crowded than during the day!
• I was surprised that the one hour photo shoot suddenly became even more expensive.

We met the ice cave guide in Jökulsarlon at 7:00 am (two hours before sunrise). Once our group was situated in his monster jeep, we started working our way up the Vatnajökull glacier in the dark and driving snow. The drive to ice cave was so unique that it made the whole experience worthwhile. After about 20 minutes or so, we reached the entrance of the ice cave.

Our guide parked the vehicle and then pointed out the various flags that were planted in the snow around the area. He warned that walking past the flags posed risks. The glacier has crevasses that aren't visible as they are covered in snow.

We were pleased that we did have the ice cave to ourselves--at least for a while. Tony Prower, our photography guide, assured us that the blue color of the ice would appear if our exposures were long enough. He was right.

The interior of this cave is quite small. We had just three photographers capturing pictures in there, and we had to take turns at times to get a shot as there wasn't enough room for everyone to compose their shots at once. Exposure times were long...so I ended up with just 10 or 12 pictures during the entire visit--which lasted just under an hour.

About ten minutes before sunrise, we heard the engines of approaching jeeps and knew we had time for just one more picture before more tourists entered the cave. Just then, we asked our ice cave guide to pose in the opening of the cave to give the photograph a sense of scale. I set my exposure for 30 seconds, but after 10 seconds passed the crowd started pushing their way past our guide to enter the cave--despite our request to just let us finish this one last exposure. So, I killed the exposure early...knowing that if I left the shutter open a few more seconds the model would blur.

Fortunately, luck went my way. The shorter exposure worked well for a single shot. I had initially planned for a 30 second exposure to properly exposure the ice...and then to take another 5 second exposure to properly expose the guide. I would then blend the two in Photoshop for a properly exposed picture throughout. But, if there was time for just one exposure, the 10 second one worked best. During post processing, I was able to recover enough detail and color in the ice, yet save the exposure of the guide.

Ten seconds later, about 25 people flocked into the cave. We could hear even more vehicles approaching. As we were escaping, there were so many people in the cave that there was barely room to stand. As our vehicle was heading back to Jökulsarlon, we saw even more vehicles heading toward the cave.

Thankfully, our photography guide knew to get us into the ice cave early. I can't even imagine the disappointment of having to share the experience with 50 or more people and not being able to get a single photograph--after all that it takes to make it to that remote part of Iceland at such cost.

This photograph is one of my favorites from the trip:

Iceland ice caveIce cave at the Vatnajokull Glacier, the largest glacier in Europe, near Jokulsarlon, Iceland on February 21, 2018

During my recent trip to Iceland, I visited a lake at the south end of the Vatnajokull glacier called Fjallsarlon.

Fjallsarlon LakeFjallsarlon, a glacier lake at the south end of the Icelandic glacier Vatnajokull, in Iceland on February 23, 2018.
CLICK HERE to view the super high resolution version of this picture!

I've been shooting with the Nikon D850 camera since November. It features an impressive 48 megapixels of resolution. For this picture, I decided to push that by creating a panoramic photograph consisting of 14 vertical exposures. I then stitched the exposures together in Lightroom. The resulting photograph is 23,200 pixels wide by 7,100 pixels tall--or a whopping 165 megapixels!

To view a high resolution version of the above photography, please CLICK HERE. Note that this high resolution version is only half of the resolution of the original file. It's best to view it on a computer monitor and to zoom into the picture and pan around.

Can you see the tourist in the frame? 

One of the reasons I purchased the Nikon D850 camera is for its versatility. So far, I have mostly used the D850 for architecture and landscapes. But, I also like to shoot other subjects--like sports, The D850 exceeded my expectations yesterday when I attended the Ohio State Buckeyes versus the Fighting Illini baseball game.

Here are a dozen from the day:

1- I used the pregame warmups to practice my photography and dial in the settings. I haven't photographed baseball in a couple of years. The players don't wear their official uniforms until game time, though.

Fighting Illini baseballFighting Illini vs. Ohio State baseball game at Illinois Field at 1605 S Wright Street on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois on May 6, 2018

2- One thing is evident about college baseball (at least at the Illini games)--the players are having the time of their lives! It's obvious that everyone is having a great time. And that carries over into the stands. Cheap concessions and free admission add to the fun!

3- One of my first tasks was to get the obligatory "bat on ball" shot out of the way.

4- When I attached the 500mm lens to the D850, it made me feel like I was right in the middle of the action.

5- Can you see what happened here? Answer at the very bottom of this post.

6- This player put on his "rally glasses" in the top of the second inning. I guess it worked. Ohio State scored 5 runs that inning.

7- To shoot through the netting behind the plate, I removed the lens hood and placed the lens directly up against the net. Set the aperture to wide open and shoot away. Finally, just hope that a foul ball doesn't slam into the lens!

8- The home plate umpire called a nice game. I'm not sure that he's ever seen a 500mm lens pointed at him before, though!

9- The centerfield fence is 400 feet from home plate...plenty of distance to create nice, soft backgrounds.

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12- The Ohio State pitcher put a little extra into this pitch.

So, here's what happened in #5. The batter tipped the pitch. It slammed into the catcher's face mask (knocking the mask away from his face). The ball then bounced back toward the hitter.

Granted, I haven't shot with a Nikon D5, yet. And, I'm not claiming that the D850 is as good as the D5 for sports. But, the auto-focus was snappy...I had very few photographs that weren't sharp. The high resolution files generate some stunning detail. The camera produced nice image quality even from the higher ISO settings that I sometimes had to use. It was an overcast day and rained a few times during the game. Overall, I was impressed with the performance of the D850. Now, I want to shoot more baseball!

The Vatnajökull Glacier is the largest in Iceland. This is Fjallsarlon Lake, a glacial lake on the south end of Vatnajökull. To create this image, I stitched 14 vertical D850 files...that's a lot of megapixels! In the end, the file exceeded 2 GB, so I had to save it as a TIFF (PSD files are limited to 2GB while TIFF goes up to 4 GB).

Fjallsarlon LakeFjallsarlon, a glacier lake at the south end of the Icelandic glacier Vatnajokull, in Iceland on February 23, 2018 CLICK HERE to view the high resolution version of this picture. This picture is best viewed on a computer monitor. You might have to give it some time to download. Note that this version is only 40% of the resolution of the original file!

Can you see the tourist? I've changed the color of his jacket to help him standout more.

One of the highlights of my trip to Wisconsin to photograph architecture was the Overture Center in Madison. The Overture Center houses a number of theaters--with the largest being Overture Hall (2,251 seats). I also photographed the Capitol Theater (1,098 seats).

I was fortunate to have access to the interior of these theaters for a couple of hours. However, since the Madison Symphony Orchestra was set up in Overture Hall with valuable equipment sitting out, a representative of the Center was assigned to be with me while I was capturing pictures.

At one point, I was preparing to capture a picture with my fisheye lens from the balcony. The theater representative was sitting in the same row just a couple of seats to my right. She was surprised when I asked her if she wouldn't mind moving back a bit as she was in the frame! The field of view for this image was nearly 180 degrees:

Overture HallOverture Hall at the Overture Center for the Arts on 201 State Street in Madison, Wisconsin on November 14, 2017 Another oddity is that there are no aisles in the balcony--other than those on the far sides of the rows. So, whenever I wished to move forward or back a row for a different perspective, I had to walk all the way to the end of the row and back again! The omission of the aisles helps to improve the acoustics as well as to provide more seating capacity.

During my last visit to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I visited the Psychology Building to photograph the Center Court. I found this to be an interesting area with its lines, colors and geometric shapes. Here are a few of the pictures that I created with my Nikon D850 camera and the Nikon 14-24 2.8 lens:

Psychology BuildingCenter Court of the Psychology Building (1970) at 603 E Daniel Street on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois on February 8, 2018 Psychology BuildingCenter Court of the Psychology Building (1970) at 603 E Daniel Street on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois on February 8, 2018 Psychology BuildingCenter Court of the Psychology Building (1970) at 603 E Daniel Street on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois on February 8, 2018 The D850's silent mode made it easier to shoot in the environment. I was set up near some students who were studying. When using the silent mode in live view, the camera makes no sound whatsoever. I had to keep checking to make sure that the images were recording on the memory card!

It was a thrill to see one of my photographs featured in a full page of this month's Travel and Leisure magazine! I captured this photograph of the Palouse during my "Great Western Loop Road Trip" last summer.

Palouse in Travel & Leisure magazineTravel & Leisure magazine's April, 2018 issue featuring my photograph of the Palouse from the summit of Steptoe Butte in Steptoe Butte State Park near Colfax, Washington on July 25, 2017 Until just a few years ago, I had never heard about the Palouse. While planning for this long road trip, I was looking for an interesting location to visit between Spokane and Crater Lake National Park. I decided to stay in Colfax, Washington to photograph the Palouse region of eastern Washington. During my stay in Colfax, I drove to the summit of Steptoe Butte three times--twice for sunset and once for sunrise. The haze from the local forest fires diminished my results from the two sunset photo shoots. But, luck prevailed for a few minutes just after sunrise one morning--and I was fortunate enough to create one of my favorite images of the trip.

This morning, my "Vestrahorn Mountain" picture won Imaging Resource's "Photo of the Day". CLICK HERE to view Imaging Resource's Photo of the Day page.

This photograph was captured in February during my trip to Iceland. I posted a blog entry about capturing this image during a sand storm.

This marks the 50th time that one of my photographs was recognized by Imaging Resource as its "Photo of the Day". A photographer is limited to one winning entry per month, so this series of winning images stretches back more than four years. Click here to view all of the winning entries over the past few years.

Vestrahorn MountainImaging Resource's Photo of the Day for April 7, 2018