Voyage North - photo essay (9) approaching Svalbard

I need to start this post with a little digression about cameras. I have two - an SLR-style mirrorless, with a variety of lenses; and a full-function compact. If I go out with the primary intention of taking photographs I always take the big camera and two or three lenses. If I go on an extended trip I always have a debate with myself about which camera to take - weight and bulk, with greatest range, or small and light with less zoom.

On this occasion, there was no debate because I had quite recently fractured my wrist, and was not long out of plaster. The flexibility and strength in my wrist and hand were still severely compromised and I couldn't physically handle the weight and bulk of the big camera. So it had to be the compact and that has had effects on my photos.

It has been apparent already in the North Cape photos - with less zoom to play with I have had to crop into larger photos to obtain the image I wanted. Combined with low light levels, this has produced grainy photos and some lack of definition.

This problem continues, in spades, as we get to the photos from further north. The camera was confused by the light - low light levels, sun low in the sky even in the middle of the day, haze and low cloud . . . and light levels changing by the minute. In an ideal world, these places would be photographed with a tripod, a carefully set-up shot, long zoom, some long exposures . . . but I was on a moving ship or with a moving group of fellow passengers. I had to make do . . .

So the following images (and also those in the next few posts) are also grainy . . . I longed for the zoom on my other camera!

We approached the Svalbard archipelago with, on the horizon, a chain of mountains and glaciers . . . all shrouded in dark grey low cloud and utterly un-photograph-able (fortunately on the return journey the weather was better - coming in a later post). As we got closer in, we sailed past an old Russian mining town, Barentsburg. Our captain (a Russian) had diverted from the direct route to our port of destination to show us the town. We couldn't approach very closely but even so, as we sailed past, a launch came out from the quay to check us out . . .

Barentsburg

Barentsburg close-up

Barentsburg - launch coming to look at us!

Then we returned to our main route. We were headed to the town of Longyearbyen (the largest town in Svalbard) on the island of Spitsbergen (the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago). The following two photos are typical of the secnery we passed.