Icebergs, Montagu Island, South Sandwich Islands
Phase One XF 150MP, 240mm Schneider Kreuznach, 1/2000 second @ f5.6, ISO 80

Everyone loves an iceberg photograph. Don't they? But icebergs can be a little like lions in Africa or red-robed monks in Bhutan. If you visit one of the polar regions, you're very likely to see more than one or two icebergs.

So why do they still make such great photographs? We could equally ask, why do we still like photos of lions roaring and monks walking? And if we're photographing these popular subjects, are we being original or just copying photographers who have visited these places before us? As I remark from time to time, the saddest day of my life was reading Susan Sontag's On Photography where she quips that all photography is derivative. Sure, I'm paraphrasing her to some extent, but she's also right: what is there left in the world to photograph that hasn't already been photographed before?

To be argumentative, we will be original when we decide to photograph a newly born baby. Baby Jane might never have been photographed before, so you have an original capture, but try to photograph baby Jane in a way a baby has never been photographed before and see how you go! Ms Sontag is unfortunately correct, so my stand-by, feel-good argument is that the photograph should be original for me.

So, have I photographed icebergs before? Yes. Does this mean these icebergs are derivative of my earlier work? Probably. So why do I keep photographing icebergs? Answer: you try standing on the deck of a ship with icebergs like this sitting off the bow and stop yourself from taking a photograph!

The difference in colour is, I'm told, a matter of pressure. The darker blues indicate the ice has come from lower down in the glacier or ice shelf from whence the iceberg has spawned, so it's been under more weight and had the light squeezed out of it! The result is a blue ice, compared to the lighter, white, top shelf material. But I'm a photographer, not a glaciologist, so don't take my word for it, join me on an Antarctic or Arctic voyage sometime and I'll introduce you to some people who can give you a better answer. 

But I'll help you photograph the icebergs!