The Ice City

This is one of the more remarkable creations I've seen in my travels. It is an ice city made entirely of blocks of ice cut from the river that flows through Harbin, China. Every year, the buildings and the theme of the event are different. LED lights are placed inside the ice, and at night the place is dazzling. About 7000 workers construct the ice city in 2 weeks, and then in the Spring everything melts. When I led a photography tour here in 2014, it was minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit at night (-37 C) and the high at midday was a balmy minus two degrees Fahrenheit (-17 C). To get this elevated perspective, I climbed three flights of ice steps in an ice building holding on to an ice railing. You can see silhouettes of people in the scene to give you a sense of scale. My settings were .5 seconds, f/22, and 200 ISO. I used a 24-105mm lens for the picture, and my white balance setting was daylight.