Icebergs are incredibly beautiful things to film.
Each with a unique character, with hidden depths. Some are an ethereal blue; the ice compressed over thousands of years. Others are a sinister grey, full of rocks scraped from beneath the glacier.
Getting to grips with shooting on Greenland's Sermilik Fjord.
Getting to grips with shooting on Greenland's Sermilik Fjord.
I was recently incredibly fortunate to travel to Greenland, reporting on the effects of global warming in the Arctic.
Correspondent Phil Black and I joined the crew and scientists aboard the Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise for four days on their expedition around the coast of Greenland, monitoring the effects of climate change.
To make the most of this rare opportunity I took a full-size High Definition camera to get the best possible pictures. With the exceptional clarity of the unpolluted air, the results from the camera have been amazing. Click here to see some stunning shots from the trip.
The highlight of our report was to fly by helicopter to the Helheim Glacier. We were taken to see the effects of climate change on the glacier by glaciologist Gordon Hamilton. Filming from helicopters is always exciting, with door open, and leaning out with the camera.
To make things even more challenging, add freezing air temperatures. We were wrapped up well in our down jackets and ski gear, but I find shooting with gloves almost impossible. My left hand was on the lens, with the cold air blowing in from the open door. By the end of the flight my hand was painfully cold.
From the helicopter, the Helheim Glacier is huge, a massive frozen river of ice that slowly flows out from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Below us were huge, jagged crevasses.
We eventually landed on a smooth area of the glacier by a blue river of melt water. After jumping across a narrow but deep crevasse, I filmed the water snaking across the cold barren landscape, and eventually disappearing down a hole into the depths of the glacier.
One slip in the river, we were told by Gordon, and we would slide down to an icy death within the glacier. A chilling thought.
The next day we went out to film on a Greenpeace inflatable in the Sermilik Fjord, with scientists recovering monitoring equipment left the year before. All around us were huge beautiful icebergs.
Of course it is essential when filming in the polar region to have a polarizer filter. The filter reduces the glare from the light reflecting off the sea and ice. The effect is deeper blue skies and greater contrast. It can reduce the reflections on the water when filming icebergs so that it is possible to see the huge mass of submerged ice below the surface.
On our way back we hauled in a small chunk of ice, smooth and elegantly shaped, almost like an ice sculpture, quite possibly ten thousand years old. This was to be the ice in our whisky that night as we toasted farewell to the crew of the Arctic Sunrise.
