Exploring the ice caves of Iceland on a bright day is an incredible blessing. They are only accessible in midwinter, where the sun only rises for four hours and even then is likely to be obscured by clouds.

The shoot when I took this image was thus incredibly rewarding, allowing me to capture the full beauty of these breathtaking places. Of course, I was eager to include a window of the bright sky into my composition, choosing it as my backdrop.

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This allowed me to capture the light as it flooded into the cave, illuminating the white slopes of snow and many shades of blue in the spectacular walls of ice. While such an image allowed me to portray the entrance as an almost fantastical portal into a magical winter world, it would not have had its impressive sense of scale without the traveler pictured, who wandered into frame at the perfect moment.

With this sense of perspective, the image is able to fully convey what incredible natural wonders the ice caves are, particularly when the sun makes one of its rare appearances.