Arctic Light, Towering Ice, Red Sails, and the Perfect Shot

Greenland is not somewhere you just end up in. You go because something about it nags at you. Maybe it’s the idea of icebergs the size of apartment buildings. Maybe it’s the allure of never-ending Arctic light. Or maybe you just want to casually tell people, “Oh yeah, I was in Greenland last week.”

Our Red Sails of Greenland trip is where all of that comes together.  We make our base in Ilulissat, a small village that is classic Greenland. A town full of colorful houses and more sled dogs than people. It’s small, quiet, and completely surrounded by some of the most ridiculous scenery on Earth. The waters of Disko bay hold some of the biggest icebergs on earth. The whole area feels more like something out of a movie than real life.

If the icy waters around Ilulissat are the stage, then the actor is our red sailboats. You have probably seen beautiful images of the red sails tucked neatly below the towering blue icebergs. These boats were the brainchild of our local partner, who realized this landscape needed some scale, perspective, and a splash of color. The bright red sails provide the perfect contrast to the white and blue ice and create the perfect photo op.

This trip is special because of our access to the red sailboats. There isn’t a whole fleet of red sailed boats in Greenland, there are just ours. This gives us the ultimate flexibility to get the shots we want since we decide where the boats go. Each afternoon, we head down to the harbor and load onto our boats. We use two different sailboats, each with slightly different sail configurations and plenty of room for people to move around on.  After leaving the harbor, we begin looking for interesting icebergs.

As we weave our way through the ice we work together to set up shots. With two boats, you always have a set of red sails to shoot, and we can effectively pose the boat for each other’s shots. We play with distance, angles, and how the sails are juxtaposed against the icebergs. Sometimes the boats seamlessly glide into the perfect frame. Other times there is a lot of discussion over the radio like “Okay… a little left… little forward… no I meant right…” But we always eventually get the boat into the perfect position for the perfect photo.

Not only can we shoot from the boat, but this is also a perfect place to shoot with a drone. Getting a drone in the air really allows you to gain a new perspective and sense of scale. The boats turn into the viewer’s reference point to grasp the size of these icebergs. Drones also make it easy to shoot many compositions from a number of locations very quickly. Of course landing a drone on a small moving target surrounded by water isn’t for the faint of heart. The captain is always able to bring the boat to a stop to make it easier to get the drones back. It is tricky, but doable, and an excellent way to photograph this immense landscape.

All of this happens high above the Arctic Circle where the light stays low and soft for hours at a time. Golden hour lasts forever. The sun just hangs out near the horizon like it forgot what it was supposed to do next. You get warm light soft light for hours, which is great until your realize you have taken 500 photos of the same iceberg because it keeps looking slightly better every few minutes.

While the sailboats are the star of the show (and rightly so), there is plenty of other things to shoot out there. In Ilulissat we make sure to go spend time with the super photogenic sled dogs of Greenland. The dogs come in all sorts of varieties, each one just eagerly waiting for the snow to fall so they can start running again. On the water the icebergs are constantly changing, revealing new patterns and textures. There are so many opportunities for abstracts and detail images. If you get tired of shooting ice, there is a pretty steady stream of humpback whales moving through the ice. Suffice to say, there is a lot of photographic opportunities in southwestern Greenland!

Another highlight is our visit to the small community of Rode Bay a few hours north of Ilulissat. This remote, and charming village is home to about 40 permanent residents. After a delicious meal at the local restaurant, we can wander around the village photographing the colorful buildings, excited sled dogs, or the massive icebergs beached in the bay. It is a really special experience to visit a place like this.

This isn’t a “check it off the list” kind of destination. It’s the kind you immerse yourself in, where the days blur together in a mix of cold air, long light, and more icebergs than your brain can neatly process. If the idea of photographing red sails weaving through giant blocks of ice makes you even a little curious… you’d probably enjoy being out there with us.

We keep the group small, spend a lot of time on the water, and leave plenty of room for both learning and those unplanned moments that tend to become the best images. If Greenland’s been quietly sitting on your “someday” list, this might be a pretty good excuse to move it up. You wouldn’t regret it.