The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

Categories: Travel

February — in the harshest month of the year — the trip to Lake Baikal and the Small Sea was far from the first for me and quite short in duration, only four days, but at the same time one of the most spectacular and unforgettable ... Almost a month has passed since my return, and mentally I'm still somewhere out there - among the Baikal icy expanses…

The Small Sea is part of the Baikal water area, a strait separated from the "big" Baikal by the largest island — Olkhon. The Small Sea is located on the territory of the Baikal National Park, and in the Sea itself there are many interesting natural monuments for ordinary tourists, photographers, and local residents.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

1. The first stop is Cape Uyuga, next to it there are many tourist bases of varying degrees of comfort. On the very first evening we arrived, threw our things and went to Lake Baikal to admire the sunset.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

2. Ice strikes immediately — huge expanses of transparent surface, in which the sunset sky is reflected. And the winds draw a variety of patterns with snow on the ice.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

3. A few minutes — the sun sets right before our eyes, but even after sunset, the ice continues to light up for a few more minutes, reflecting the evening sky.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

4. The ice is about a meter thick and at the same time transparent, you can see how cracks go to a meter depth.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

5. The next day is early morning, we meet the dawn at Cape Hadarta.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

6. Dots-men on ice — our group under the leadership of alexphotograph is exploring the icy expanses of Lake Baikal.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

7. From Hadarta we move south, towards the island of Ogoy.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

8. Ice is very diverse in color and texture. Somewhere blue-black.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

9. And sometimes green. The ice is so clean that microscopic air bubbles can be seen at a depth of half a meter, and if you look closely, you can see micro—arcs formed from the refraction of light in the cracks.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

10. If you are lucky, you can see not only air bubbles, but also twigs or fragments of algae frozen in ice. The thickness of such a "still life" is several tens of centimeters, and all this is under your feet — hundreds of meters!

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

11. And here is the actual Ogoy. The largest of the islands of the Small Sea. The island is dearly loved by photographers and... Buddhist pilgrims.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

12. The fact is that a Buddhist shrine, the Stupa of Enlightenment, was erected on the highest point of the island in 2005.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

13. In a couple of hours we go around Ogoy and the surrounding area, and I return to my favorite stele in the ice — the western tip of the island. This frame is the result of a couple of hours of waiting for beautiful light, clouds and another half hour of lying on the ice in an embrace with the camera.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

14. By sunset we return back to Hadarta: clean ice, wind-smoothed snow cover and textured ice splashes.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

15. Dawn again, this time Cape Tsagan-Khushun, the vicinity of Kurma. Early morning, the temperature is about -30. There are only a few minutes left before sunrise.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

16. The sun finally appears, literally the first seconds of dawn. In general, Kurma is a magical place for a photographer: firstly, there are several grottoes and spectacular stone arches in the vicinity.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

17. Secondly, these are grass fields sprinkled with snow and wrapped in the wind.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

18. And thirdly - in the same place, not far from Cape Tsagan—Khushun, there is a swampy Baikal Bay, where frozen marsh vegetation can be seen in the ice thickness.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

19. The spectacle is fantastic — try to imagine a smooth and transparent ice glass half a meter thick with frozen plants and snow crystals.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

20.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

21. Another of the islands of the Small Sea, which made a very strong impression on me, is the island of Oltrek.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

22. Ice splashes on the Baikal islands are a common phenomenon, they are always very photogenic, and this year Baikal has not frozen for a long time, perhaps that's why the ice and the splashes shining in the sun with a bluish light this year are an unreal sight at all.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

23. The icy Oltrek impressed me so much that at sunset I returned to it again to admire this beauty in the rays of the setting sun.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

24. And on the way back, I again observed the red-gold ice from the evening light.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

25. I meet the dawn again — this time I admire the rising sun from the grotto at Cape Uyuga. The grotto is huge, dark, to highlight it, I used a couple of external flashes, which I placed in the corners.

The fairy tale of the icy Baikal — a journey through the Small Sea

26. And the last frame from the trip: a downright explosion of color, ice corals on Uyuge in the first rays of dawn. Surely someone will look and say: "I don't believe it! Photoshop!" But this is the case when photographic equipment cannot convey the full brightness of those dawn seconds, during processing it was even necessary to reduce the saturation.

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