Laguna San Rafael

Laguna San Rafael is a remote glacial lagoon in Chilean Patagonia where the San Rafael Glacier calves directly into steel-blue water, producing a constantly shifting field of icebergs in shades of white, turquoise, and deep blue. The glacier face itself makes a dramatic backdrop, and you will want to frame it with floating ice chunks in the foreground for scale and depth. A 70-200mm lens helps compress the distance between bergs and the glacier wall, while a wide angle works well when you are closer to the ice. Overcast days are actually ideal here, as soft diffused light brings out the intense blues in the ice without harsh shadows. Most visitors arrive by boat tour from Puerto Chacabuco, and shooting from the deck gives you elevated, unobstructed angles; position yourself at the bow for clean compositions without other passengers in frame. (Laguna San Rafael National Park, Aysén, Chile)