Hypothermia Shoot 1: Glacial Swimming

Seth, Mendenhall Glacier

 Four shoots,  three lenses, two assistants, one softbox, one nearly frozen glacial lake, all to finally get the single, final image seen above.  But such is the cost of experimentation to learn a new technique.

 

Brenyn

The idea in my head was something resembling a person out for a leisurely swim, albeit in a glacial lake with a glacier in the background.  I remember I had photographed someone in the lake before, but she was in a wetsuit.  Turns out the water was rather chilly.

Brenyn

 With each swimmer only able to spend about 10 seconds immersed in the water at a time, we went through a lot of swimmers.  And since there was the very real danger of hypothermia and/ or muscle cramps followed by unfortunate drowning, all the swimmers had to stay in shallow water.

Peter

After trying a long telephoto (400 mm) then a wide angle (24 mm), finally got the final image at 200 mm.  Seemed like the best compromise between compressing the background towards the subject, while also giving the viewer a sense of the surroundings. 

Jackson

Thanks Seth, Peter, Nick, Brenyn, Jackson, Cody, and Rachel for suffering through my idea.