Life in Black and White

When people think of the arctic they often picture a vast expanse of white snow-coloured ground against blue sky. Very occasionally this is true, but usually the colours in the arctic don't obey the normal rules. In the early morning the world can appear as though viewed through a blue lens. Everything tinted a light, bright blue, and every other colour suppressed. Sometimes the sky is purple, or red. In summer the ground can be a mix of every imaginable colour of rocks and plants.
Sometimes camera shots capture the wild colours, but more often not. Sometimes the strange lighting can make getting a shot difficult, and sometimes the colours are so overwhelming the make the subject of any shot nearly irrelevant.
The most dramatic pictures I've seen from the arctic are from early explorers, devoid of colour (as in black and white) but full of light. Last week I was in Pangnirtung, and tried to capture a shot that showed the power of the sea ice pushing up the fjord and towards the pass. In many of my shots the colours predominate. Brilliant blues, the reds of the rock face, the stark white of the snow. Of all the shots I took I think the one below best represents what I was trying to capture, in black and white.