In March 2018, professional photographer Harald Kröher and a few members of the Rollei team went to Val Roseg in Switzerland to conduct a spectacular ice princess photoshoot in a bizarre glacier cave – and at the same time to test various Rollei products under the harshest environmental conditions. The story of the journey to the glacier, the ice cave shoot, and the subsequent landscape photography excursion were very impressive. Great photos were taken in the snow. So, let's start with the journey...
The Journey to Val Roseg
The participants of this expedition – because this not entirely harmless shooting project, which put extreme strain on people and equipment, must be described as a true expedition – only reached the entrance to Val Roseg by car.
In this remote mountain area of the Swiss canton of Graubünden, private vehicle traffic is prohibited – to get to the hotel, all the extensive material had to be packed into a minibus, which then took the entire team through a completely untouched and deeply snow-covered landscape to the only building in the entire valley.
Before heading to the hotel, all the equipment was unloaded and stored in the snow – given the tight schedule and for safety reasons, the participants had to complete a snowshoe exercise, including setting up an emergency tent, directly afterward.
The photo equipment and personal luggage survived the good hour in deep powder snow at minus 26 degrees completely unscathed, thanks to the excellently crafted and well-insulated Rollei backpacks. Even the carried batteries largely maintained their high charge level.
The Helicopter Flight
The next morning, after a short breakfast, the group set off at 7:30 AM to reach a nearby makeshift helicopter landing pad with their snowshoes.
After just a few minutes, the helicopter arrived and picked up the first "load" of people and material.
All equipment was packed into the helicopter's external bags and transport baskets and securely lashed down for space reasons; the interior seats were reserved for the expedition participants for understandable reasons. Even the flight, which only lasted 3 to 4 minutes, exposed the exposed photo equipment to additional wind. Of necessity, the backpacks were simply thrown into the deep snow upon landing so that the helicopter could take off again immediately, pick up the second batch, and bring it to the glacier.
The landing site was located approximately 50 meters below the entrance to the ice cave, which Harald Kröher had already explored on foot – or snowshoe – in advance, directly on the massive Roseg Glacier.
Despite the comparatively short distance, the team needed about an hour to collect the material and laboriously bring it up to the location on snowshoes.
Difficult Weather Conditions
The several-meter-deep snow not only strained the members of the icy photo safari physically, but also the very dangerous snow holes, which were barely recognizable even by experienced mountain guides, led to a significantly slower and very cautious pace of movement. These holes are formed by the partial melting of glacier ice. Subsequent snowfalls or drifts then cover the not very wide openings, but offer little support through the fine powder snow if one unfortunately steps into one of these treacherous pitfalls.
The journey to the ice cave was no "walk in the park" for the equipment either. After the unprotected helicopter flight and storage in the snow, as expected, there was no prepared and well-insulated storage area for the valuable photo equipment in the ice cave. At minus 26.5 degrees Celsius, personal luggage and technical equipment found their place directly on the ice floor of the breathtaking cave. Neither the sturdy outer material nor the robust zippers of the backpacks, however, took exception to the truly rough and, in the truest sense of the word, "cold-blooded" treatment or allowed moisture to penetrate inside.
The Icy Photo Shoot
Arriving in the very dark and somewhat eerie ice cave, the Rollei HS Freeze 6 studio flashes had to be unpacked, made ready for operation, and positioned. The only natural light available were the sunbeams that found their way onto the reflective ice through the rather small cave entrance. Despite the millions of reflections, one could only orient oneself in one-sixth of the entire interior without artificial illumination. A total of five flash heads went on the icy photo safari; depending on the motif and camera perspective, Harald Kröher planned to wirelessly trigger three to five HS Freeze 6 on different height tripods with the appropriate attachments.
The Cool Ice Princess
The basic idea behind the shoot: to capture the contrast between a graceful, festively dressed "Ice Princess" and the archaic natural power of the glacier as spectacularly and dramatically as possible. The female model not only had to endure in different outfits in the glacier cave and on the ice bridge above the entrance at minus 26.5 degrees, but also always appear as natural and relaxed as possible.
The gasoline-powered heat packs, intended as a warming opportunity, completely failed after a very short time due to the incredible cold. The model truly mastered the enormous challenges of the 2-hour shoot in an exemplary manner and deservedly earned the crown of "Ice Princess." Professional photographer Harald Kröher was not only extremely impressed by the endurance and cold insensitivity of the "cool" lady, but also the Rollei equipment carried earned the artist's unreserved respect. Throughout the entire shoot, he exposed at least 300 times and controlled three to five Rollei HS Freeze with the wireless trigger mounted on the hot shoe.
The Equipment
Although even his high-end professional camera did not always trigger reliably, he could rely almost blindly on the functionality and luminous power of the Rollei flashes. The batteries of the most heavily used studio flashes were not completely empty after the dismantling phase, and spare batteries were not even needed for one flash head, which lay directly on the bitterly cold floor of the impressive ice cave the entire time.
According to Harald Kröher, he had never experienced a comparable performance under such extreme environmental conditions in his career as an internationally recognized photo artist, which has certainly been very varied.
In particular, the high flash output of 600 Ws in combination with the very compact dimensions and low weight of the battery and flash unit made a lasting impression on Harald Kröher. He was able to use all flash functions without restriction at all times – in the ice cave, he experimented with a kind of "reversed" HSS flash and completely bathed the actually very dark glacier cave in dazzling light.
The millions of natural prisms reflected the light in green and blue tones; the optical effect achieved by the professional photographer was described by the expedition participants as truly overwhelming and surreal. Outside the cave entrance, he placed the model directly on the impressive ice bridge and flashed against the sun in HSS mode. All controls remained smooth and fully operational, regardless of the consistently inhospitable temperatures.
The spectacular uniqueness of this shoot and the results achieved are not only due to the professionalism of all involved and the immense reliability of the equipment used – changing global climatic conditions also mean that fewer and fewer glacier caves form and can then be entered safely.
The experienced mountain guide was not at all sure whether a comparable ice cave would form next season.
Landscape Shots
The final landscape shoot followed. To properly contextualize the impressions described below by the participants of the exclusive landscape shoot after the spectacular glacier cave event, a few explanatory words about the "hardware" are necessary:
The new Rollei Extremium Round Filters have properties that fundamentally change the handling of screw-on lens attachments. Previously, filters and lenses could only be assembled and disassembled if no temperature differences caused the individual materials to contract or expand to different extents. In the worst case, the lens and filter would then be permanently connected – if one did not want to risk glass breakage. With the titanium rings of the Extremium round filters, these problems have simply disappeared. The extremely temperature-insensitive titanium ensures that the filters can be screwed on and off again and again without hesitation, even in scorching heat, bitter cold, or enormous material temperature differences.
Against this background, the expedition participants understandably found it somewhat difficult to "simply" take various filters from the warmer filter bags and the Rollei photo backpacks at -26.5 degrees and mount them on the already very cold lenses. Or to attach their favorites in the warm hotel and then effortlessly unscrew them outdoors.
This unexpected flexibility allowed photographers to view the enchanting mountain world of Val Roseg through the various filters and capture it on the memory cards of their professional cameras, even under inherently "filter-unfriendly" conditions. Especially with a seemingly endless sky, the improvement potential of a premium polarizing filter becomes very evident: richer blue skies and crisper contrasts directly in the shot.
The ND filters of the Extremium family were understandably mainly used for long exposures – and promptly, a few clouds appeared directly, serving as ideal test objects to experiment freely with exposure time.
Furthermore, the very intense sunlight and the extensive snowfields also meant that a fundamental overexposure had to be compensated for in various perspectives. Even proven professionals were more than impressed by the possible image variations – also in view of the extreme weather conditions, which normally demand very careful handling of the material.
The quality of the results goes far beyond the "unfiltered" potential of even high-end cameras. Moreover, not all effects can be achieved afterwards during digital image post-processing.
In high mountains, it is also advisable to always use a suitable UV filter in addition to the "creative" filters, which can permanently remain as a protective glass on the lens – without running the risk of never being able to remove it again.
Not only one participant, when viewing the photographic yield in the evening, was sure to have been physically present – the qualitative differences or the enormous increase in visual intensity through the use of various Extremium filters left none of the testers unimpressed.
Conclusion
The Rollei products carried not only passed their "ice baptism" with flying colors, but also contributed fully to the success of this truly unique and memorable expedition into one of Switzerland's most photogenic and at the same time most inhospitable regions.
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