NikonGear'23

Images => Nature, Flora, Fauna & Landscapes => Topic started by: Bjørn Rørslett on August 14, 2015, 09:03:49

Title: Waiting for the Thaw
Post by: Bjørn Rørslett on August 14, 2015, 09:03:49

A mountain road of Western Norway mid May. Still some time to wait for the spring to come so you can drive through the alpine pass ...

(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/542/19122128031_7f72a5a76f_o.jpg)

Nikon D3 and the AFS 200/2 Nikkor.

Title: Re: Waiting for the Thaw
Post by: Frank Fremerey on August 14, 2015, 11:25:22

looks like a Rørslett...

Title: Re: Waiting for the Thaw
Post by: John Geerts on August 14, 2015, 11:56:05

I love these kind of surrealistic images  ;)

Title: Re: Waiting for the Thaw
Post by: elsa hoffmann on August 14, 2015, 12:27:37

road?? you could have fooled me

Title: Re: Waiting for the Thaw
Post by: Akira on August 14, 2015, 13:24:42

Quote from: elsa hoffmann on August 14, 2015, 12:27:37

road?? you could have fooled me

Elsa, if there were no road, there would be no street signs.  :D

Title: Re: Waiting for the Thaw
Post by: Jørgen Ramskov on August 14, 2015, 14:54:42

Took me a second to make sense of the image :) I wonder how you managed to get there to take the shot? :)

Title: Re: Waiting for the Thaw
Post by: armando_m on August 14, 2015, 15:15:13

the inverted sign is a Yield ?

if so somewhere there is another road , eventually to be revealed

Title: Re: Waiting for the Thaw
Post by: Gary on August 14, 2015, 15:59:23

Love it!

Title: Re: Waiting for the Thaw
Post by: Peter Connan on August 14, 2015, 16:03:09

Great image!

Title: Re: Waiting for the Thaw
Post by: Bjørn Rørslett on August 14, 2015, 16:26:56

A few other of the scenery taken at the same time.

The reason for the road being closed is not, as you might surmise, the depth of the snow pack. At that time it was just a few meters and not deeper than 10m anywhere, well within the capacity of modern snow-clearing equipment. The problem is the residual snow in the mountainous terrain surrounding the road as this snow pack easily creates avalanches.

First, a fisheyed view of the road. As I then set up the tripod for the image shown in the opening post, I heard the characteristic massive rumble of a big avalanche nearby. I had the old Nikkor 180-600 mm f/8 on the D3 and swung the lens over to capture the avalanche just as it came to a standstill a few seconds later. Doesn't look dangerous until you realise there is no indication of scale and in fact, the biggest blocks of snow in this picture were the size of a city bus.... Not something you wanted to hit the road whilst driving, that's for sure.

Title: Re: Waiting for the Thaw
Post by: David Paterson on August 15, 2015, 00:47:28

Interesting images, all three. The long telephoto makes it hard to estimate how far away the avalanche was when it came to rest, but the saving grace may have been that at this time of year there was no powder-snow around to lubricate its progress. Wet/crystalline snow avalanches are lethal but tend not to travel as fast or as far as their powder-snow counterparts. (But as a Norwegian, you know avalanches better than I do.)

So you are still with us.   ;D

Title: Re: Waiting for the Thaw
Post by: Jakov Minić on August 15, 2015, 01:06:36

How can you not like Norway when you see Bjørn's images!
Bjørn, you are a true Ambassador to your country, and King Harald V should honor you with a medal of some sort ;)