Capturing Greenland is hard, the scale is huge the colors are stark, and there is little to give a sense of scale. Before getting to Greenland I made sure to make use of Google. It is seriously of the best tools for travel photographers on tight timelines.
After doing my research about where we would be I tried to think of the kinds of shots that I wanted to have on my check list. This is a useful exercise for me just so I have a starting point when I get to a location, even if often times as soon as I get there I need to edit that shot list in my head.
Flying into Greenland lots of new ideas started coming to mind. I wanted to be able to show the distinct differences, the colors and the starkness, the life and the ruggedness.
Expanses of ice, clouds, ocean, and mountains makeup eastern Greenland.
Finding shots around every corner the first evening in Greenland
When I saw Kuluk approaching on his sled I knew it contained a lot of the elements of what it actually felt like to be in this rugged place. Later while riding on Kuluk's sled, we talked about what our lives were like both being in our twenties, but him being from eastern Greenland, and me being from Seattle, WA. Our conversation spanned politics, video games (he likes FIFA), and even polar bear hunting. He is a polar bear hunter and had just killed one earlier that week. The time I spent on his sled was eye-opening, not only because of the differences in our lives and perspectives but also the little things I wouldn't have expected we would have in common. Talking about FIFA on a dogsled in Greenland wasn't what I had expected before getting to Greenland.
Kuluk approaching on his sled.
The view from the front of the sled
One of the things I am always excited to try and capture in a single shot is as possible. In Greenland for me this was snow, mountains, and fjords. This shot managed to have all of them elements with the edge of the Greenland Icecap in the background.
Black and White of the Eastern Greenland Landscape
With such a big landscape find a way to give a sense of scale is essential for some shots to work. In this case I used a single skier to show how massive the landscape, and the storm rolling in were.
The massive landscape looking back towards the town of Kulusuk