The Finns take a lot of saunas. In the winter, they even jump into ice holes in the lakes. Right now, because we have had such a mild winter so far, the lake near to my house is not yet completely frozen, but this is a picture of the ice hole next to the public sauna.
Here's the colour version, this may not be the best for a B&W conversion
I actually prefer the b&w version to the color one - seems to make the water look even colder. My best friend in high school was an exchange student from Finland - I can still sing the Finnish national anthem and say a few bad words. :)
There seems something appropriate, given the subject matter, of the lines from the staircase and platform leading us into essentially nothingness. Excellent.
I get the chills just thinking about jumping into that water surrounded by ice. I think it is fine as a b&w. The only thing I would suggest is boosting the contrast a bit.
It looks cold enough just to be there taking a photo, without taking a plunge as well! I really like this, and prefer it to the color version because it seems "colder" in b&w. Great image!
man that is cold. I have tried shooting when its this cold, I am big wuss. :P
If you try a curves layer set to multiply masked to only effect the clouds. You will get more details. Although I think the white sky adds to the bleakness. :)
Hmm I think I like the black and white better. That sheet of ice hanging from the side of the steps is intriguing, and if it were possible, I'd actually want to see a closer crop so I can see all that is going on there.
This is so awesome! And I have to chuckle about the "relativeness" of people's perspectives based on the culture of where they live. In Texas, this would not be considered a "mild" winter. We drop below 70, and we bring out the hooded down coats and love having a winter for a change :)
I love this photo. It just says so much in its simplicity!
Whilst I'd have preferred a bit more depth to the clouds am thinking they lend themselves to this scene quite well. The image overall has nice low contrast feel to it and thats seems to help me feel cold looking at it lol
I am not jumping! Interesting image and story... I would be nice to take this from a higher angle, which would reduce the amount of sky in the image without detracting from subject.
Very nice tonal range in this shot, and good clarity. Too bad you didn't have some silly person coming out of the water! :-) (I've done that once - it's quite the experience!)
I've done that. Quite bracing, I have to say. Then walked over pebbles and rocks barefoot. Then repeated all of the previous 3 times. That's the real life!
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