HIGHLY COMMENDED CATEGORY LANDSCAPES
Michal Krause | The frozen land

Name: Michal Krause
Picture title: The Frozen Land
Category: Landscape
Nationality: Czechia
Occupation: Full-time photographer and educator

Technical information
Camera: Fujifilm X-T3
Lens: Fujinon XF16mmF1.4 R WR
EXIF: 1/15 sec at f10 (+1 e/v)  •   ISO 400
Accessories: Tripod Gitzo Traveler GK2545T-82QD

Michal Krause says:

When traveling for wildlife photography, I often regret that I cannot capture the surrounding landscape too. I usually have to choose between those two, because both are best photographed at the same time when the light is the most flattering and beautiful. A major advantage of the Arctic region is that the optimal lighting conditions in some seasons last almost all day. Days only last a few hours at the end of winter, the sun travels the sky very low, and the light almost seems all the time sunrise or sunset. This allowed me to photograph not only animals at Svalbard, but also breathtaking landscapes such as these pink-lit mountains behind the frozen bay.

In the less than two weeks we spent on our trip to Svalbard, we discovered that freezing the sea could be a fascinating process. We have seen many forms of sea ice at that time. It ranges from still liquid but dense mash-like water, to free floating large chunks of ice, or just simply forming small rounded ice floes, which can merge into a continuous layer under optimal conditions, to ice covering of more than one meter thick.

I couldn’t just pass through such scenes, especially when it was lit by the beautiful light that’s so typical of the Nordic regions. I took this photo on the last afternoon before our flight home. Temperatures dropping down to -30 degrees are a challenge for both photographic equipment and photographers, but the beauty of the Arctic landscape and its inhabitants amply make up for the temporary discomfort.