I didn't go in the normal way... it was a bit uncanny to be out here exploring this glacier by myself, crampons and boots soiled by glacial till, and then running into these two swiss guys as I'm crawling down into a wet dripping cave into the darkness along some crag or crevasse. We found a shelf inside, and it lead into this cavern that you see here, which quite a few people before us had discovered... although they all took the much easier approach you see him standing on here. The guides in Iceland make a lot of money by exploring these glaciers as they change shapes, and taking tourists from all over the world to see these. It's sort of an interesting experience to be out there on your own, with a couple of guys, running into large groups of people that paid quite a bit of money to essentially go on a walk. That being said, this is a risky place, and I don't really pretend to think that a guided tour removes the reality that at any point in time, the monumental forces involved in cascading ice can cause a shift, collapse, shattering, or disturbance that could result in catastrophe. It feels so solid and almost like rock when you're there, but what you see in this picture is constantly in slow motion. It took me quite some time to get comfortable with the processing here... to capture the natural feel of the alpineglow as the sun set, and also attempt to capture the details inside the cave. Anyone who's attempted these shots knows the challenges of the dynamic range in these settings. Lots of light bleed, and unresolvable issues in post.
