An Iceberg From Top To Bottom
This photograph was possible because the water was calm and the sun was almost directly overhead so that the diver was able to get into the clear water and click this picture. The estimated weight is 300,000,000 tons.

Well, we thought the above statement was true but…

This photo with the above statement was sent to us by e-mail with no credit given, during an exhibition of Judith Currelly’s work that contained paintings of polar icebergs. We thought it fitting to put it on-line to accompany her aerial photographs.

Having a number of requests for information on the image from website visitors over the next couple of years, we had become very curious and were very happy when someone provided us with the following information:

"Being aware of the truth of the adage Don't Believe Everything You See on the Internet, I decided to check it out, if only to find out just how the intrepid photographer had achieved the apparently impossible feat of taking a shot over and under the water at the same time.

"First port of call was Global Marine Drilling. That showed them to be a big mechanically-minded corporation, more intent on drilling for oil than to worry about photos of icebergs.

"Global Marine Drilling does do work in the ocean off Newfoundland; there are Rig Managers involved; and icebergs really are towed in the offshore industry. But this 'photo' is really a composite of 4 separate images, put together in 1999 by underwater photographer Ralph A. Clevenger. It's probably best known from its use on a motivational poster put out by Successories, a company that produces posters and other materials with inspirational mottoes for use in business settings. Icebergs off Newfoundland may weigh as much as several million tons, but not 300 million tons as stated (though they do occasionally reach that weight in other parts of the world). The picture was not taken by an oil drilling worker and is not a simple, single photograph created by underwater photographer Ralph Clevenger, who had written:

"I created the image as a way of illustrating the concept of what you get is not necessarily what you see. As a professional photographer, I knew that I couldn't get an actual shot of an iceberg the way I envisioned it, so I created the final image by compositing several images I had taken. The two halves of the iceberg are 2 separate shots, one taken in Alaska and one taken in Antarctica (neither is underwater). The only underwater part is the background taken off the coast of California. The sky is the last component. It took a lot of research on lighting and scale to get the berg to look real." "

Ah well, it's still a great picture! Congratulations to Ralph Clevenger on having designed it, and to Successories, based in Aurora, Illinois, on marketing it so successfully. Their caption explains what the iceberg photo depicts:

The Essence of Imagination (Iceberg): What we can easily see is only a small percentage of what is possible. Imagination is having the vision to see what is just below the surface; to picture that which is essential, but
invisible to the eye.