High above eastern Greenland, Scoresby Sund fans out like a tree made of water, stretching hundreds of kilometers inland from the coast. Its icy depths plunge well over 1000m in places, while edges rise sharply into vertiginous mountain peaks.

“It can look perfectly peaceful from altitude, but this is Greenland, so the reality is often anything but tranquil,” says Tobias Hägg, a veteran of multiple trips up the waterway’s sinuous channels. “Here, you seldom know what to expect. It’s the real wilderness. The weather can change in minutes, dumping huge quantities of snow, or filling the whole fjord in fog, then it’s gone again.”

For the last four years, Tobias has been travelling these fjords and witnessing their wonders from the deck of an old wooden schooner, the ​​Opal. Each eight-day adventure packs in a huge variety of sights, he says. “These journeys have been impossible to forget. We’re exploring one of the largest and deepest fjord systems in the world, a place that’s always in motion.”

“The whole landscape changes from one hour to the next,” he continues. “Light and weather can make the same scene look totally different in minutes, icebergs spin and carve into new compositions, and routes open up or become blocked. Last time out we weren’t sure if we could still sail into the same system, so we did it in reverse, which brought all sorts of new views.”

While shooting from the deck of a boat might seem restrictive, Tobias says it brings plenty of opportunities, and frequent trips to the shore are made, too. “As a photographer you’re always up on deck trying to spot opportunities, but it’s a long journey, so time isn’t really an issue, and if you see something in the distance you know that you’ll be there soon. Or you can ask the captain to navigate towards a composition.”

“For instance,” he continues, “this time it was a mission of mine to get closer to some of the red-coloured mountains around the fjord, where you get this beautiful contrast between the warm tones of the rock face and the blues of the ice and the water.”

Just like changing weather and the constant flow of beautiful sights, Tobias has found his approach to photographing the Sund has evolved, too. “Each trip I’ve found myself concentrating on a different aspect,” he explains. “You see new things and respond to new situations. The first year, I was stoked on shooting the schooner in the landscape and I tried to photograph the trip in general like a lifestyle approach, as well as the nature we passed.”

“In the second year I found myself focusing more on the abstract elements, like the textures of the glaciers and reflection in the water,” he continues. “I try to be open minded and not plan too much, just see what inspires me.”

With so many opportunities coming while on deck, it’s no wonder Tobias has embraced two of Sony’s latest G Master zoom lenses for his recent trip. “Lenses like the FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II and FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II let me reach into these amazing landscapes and really draw out the detail,” he reveals. “Both lenses are incredibly small, light and sharp. They open up new possibilities, especially when your ability to move your feet is limited.”

“With the FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II, it’s also a set of focal lengths I’ve not used too much before, previously preferring Sony’s 100-400mm,” he continues, “but the combination or a faster aperture and the lens’s optical image stabilisation makes it a brilliant choice for these kinds of situations, where camera shake is obviously an issue.”

Backing up these flagship zooms, Tobias’s choice of body is the Alpha 7R IV. “I’ve used it throughout this project on Scoresby Sund,” he explains, “and the R series really is the best choice if you want incredible detail in difficult situations. Obviously the 61Mp resolution produces superb clarity, but the camera’s Steady Shot Inside in-body image stabilisation ensures every pixel is crisp and clear when handholding or shooting from a moving vehicle.”

“The camera is certainly tough enough to withstand these harsh environments, too,” he continues, “and it’s at home with all the kinds of pictures I want to do, from landscapes to wildlife, travelogue and everything in between, so I can rely on it completely throughout those eight weeks.”

“Even though I’ve journeyed through Scoresby Sund multiple times, there’s still a lifetime of sights to discover,” he finishes. “I want to experience it at its most extreme, to see the true cold of the deepest winter. And also to keep documenting the retreat of the glaciers due. But even though change is part of the experience, I won’t be switching my camera and lenses just yet.”