Blue, Blue, Electric Blue ...

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Blue, Blue, Electric Blue ...
Photo Information
Copyright: James Parker (Jamesp) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1223 W: 0 N: 4449] (13290)
Genre: Landscapes
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2001-12
Categories: Mountain
Camera: Canon EOS 1vHS, Canon 70-200 f 2.8 L USM, Fuji Provia 100
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2007-03-26 8:03
Viewed: 698
Points: 14
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
The Moreno Glacier is, in my view one of the most beautiful in the world. This is a scanned slide - it has not been cropped.

The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that are not retreating. It is interesting that the Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers (New Zealand) at similar latitude are also advancing. The steep front is typical of an advancing glacier – drawings of advancing alpine glaciers in the Little Ice Age of the late 18 Century look the same.

Periodically the glacier advances over the L-shaped "Lago Argentino" ("Argentine Lake") forming a natural dam which separates the two halves of the lake when it reaches the opposite shore. With no escape route, the water-level on the Brazo Rico side of the lake can rise by up to 30 meters above the level of the main lake. The enormous pressure produced by this mass of waters finally breaks the ice barrier holding it back, in a spectacular rupture event. This dam/rupture cycle is not regular and it naturally recurs at any frequency between once a year to less than once a decade.

The terminus of the Perito Moreno Glacier is 5 km wide, with an average height of 60 meters above the surface of the water, with a total ice depth of 170 meters. It advances at a speed of up to 2 m per day (around 700 m per year), although it loses mass at approximately the same rate, meaning that aside from small variations, its terminus has not advanced or receded in the past 90 years. At its deepest part, the glacier has a depth of approximately 700 m.

Title from David Bowie 'Sound and Vision'.
SelenE, Adanac, ramthakur, Silvio2006, Mana, LordPotty, JHorse has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To JHorse: LensJamesp 1 03-28 17:37
To Evelynn: Taken from the groundJamesp 1 03-27 00:36
To Adanac: Blue colourJamesp 1 03-26 09:46
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Critiques [Translate]

Hello James,
Thanks for sharing this wonderful capture, I have always loved the glacial blue ice and your image shows it well.
James you have been to many places, do all glaciers have the same blue color, unlike water which can be so many different colors?
Rick

nice colors good focus interesting patterns.

Hello James
What a wonderful scene,
Great lighting and cropping,
Excellent work.

Regards
Fartash

From the warm Terai plains of Nepal to the icy extremities of South Argentina, it is a quantum jump for me this evening while I look at your recent pictures, James.
The face of the Moreno Glacier shown in this picture appears to be massive with those formidable looking crevices and crags on the blue ice. Is it an aerial shot?
Your highly specialised visits to the most exotic locales on the earth give me a nudge of pleasurable envy, my friend :-).
Regards.
Ram

Hi James, wonderful Ice composition with great light, very well done, ciao Silvio

  • Great 
  • Mana Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1687 W: 20 N: 4738] (15476)
  • [2007-03-26 14:15]

Hi James,
Splendid capture of the ice formations and its blue colour. I think the blue colour is generated from the reflection of the sunlight......and it looks so majestic. Very nicely composed. Informative and educative note too. Kudos.
TFS.
Sumon

I suppose this is another airplane shot. It's amazing. I have flown over Alaskan glacial fields and seen quite a few glaciers. It is amazing what cameras do to light reflected off of ice. It is such an amazing blue. What a rugged surface this glacier has.

TFS
Evelynn : )

James, Great shot. An inspiration for my visit there next month. Still trying to decide on lens choice, interesting you went with tele; I was thinking wide. Jon

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