It’s not called Iceland for nothing

I don’t know about anyone else but I’m beginning to grow a list of places that I could probably visit again and again and never tire of them. Uluru/Ayers Rock is one, as is the Kruger. This year I’ve added another to the list – Jokulsarlon – a lake at the edge of the Vatnjokull glacier. A glacier bordering water means – icebergs. Lots of them.

The other thing about this lake is that you can take a boat among the ‘bergs – like

this one. Get onto on dry land – then it drives into the water and becomes a boat. Sadly , in spite of it being a wonderful evening, we didn’t do this. We arrived late afternoon, having spent all day driving from the fjordlands of the south-east, and concluded that we could come back next day. Hah!! We had considered the changeability of Icelandic weather.

There’s an old saying about making hay while the sun shines – it also applies to boat trips. The next two days were truly foul with a force 8 wind and regular heavy showers. So. I’m glad I took the following while I had the chance.

All was not lost the next  day though – the  rough weather had washed a number of the ‘bergs out of the lake and they were washed up on the local beach. The only challenge was photography in the pouring rain and howling wind.

Waterfalls – hundreds of them (Part 2)

Now for some rather more delicate ones:

I think this is Foss a Sidu. It was one of the more dramatic of the waterfalls inland of the N1 running along the south of the island. I’m guessing the cliff is the leading edge of some ancient lava flow.  The flow of water wasn’t huge but I was taken by the juxtaposition with the houses. I guess it’s possible to get used to the sound of that much water falling that close to your bedroom. It was possible to walk right up to the base of this one – this next shot was taken with the ultra-wide angle while standing in 3 inches of water in the middle of the stream.

In this example I’ve concentrated on the rocks at the base of the fall – to be honest I wish I’d taken more care with the depth of field – but I think the slight lack of focus on the main falls works OK.

A more deliberate and extreme use of shallow DoF worked rather well at Gufufoss on the road to Seydisfjordur, and provided a nice backdrop for the harebells in this one, with a general view alongside for comparison.

 

Waterfalls – hundreds of them (Part 1)

One things you can’t help but notice in Iceland is waterfalls. They’re everywhere you look. Some of them take your breath away with their power, others just make you stand back and gaze at their beauty. Some are internationally known, other don’t even have a name. Most of them shout out ‘photograph me, photograph me’ to the point where the real challenge is finding a different angle or a new take on the scene.

The other challenge, for me at least, was that being on a touring holiday means you have to accept the light as it is when you get there – you have to be somewhere else tomorrow. This means finding ways of coping with flat lighting conditions, grey skies, backlight, limited time and, of course, other people.

Here’s a couple of examples with some commentary on what I tried to achieve at the time.

Godafoss was quite a challenge. As you can see from the above it is quite a large waterfall – actually a pair of waterfalls with another of similar size to the left of the one above. No surprise that there were lots of other photographers there, and I waited until the single person was stood on the rock to the right to emphasise the scale.

To add to the fun, the sunlight, coming through broken cloud was into the camera. To catch the scene I used 1 and 2 stop neutral grads to retain some detail in the cloud. I also bracketed the shots and used a slightly underexposed version to fill in the detail in the waterfall itself.

If you think Godafoss is big (which it is by UK standards), next up is Dettifoss. To get there is a 25 mile drive up a very rutted dirt road, and when we got there the light had already turned flat (after a good start to the day). Here’s my first reaction to it – a straight shot which shows the canyon it falls into:

I’d managed to leave the NDs in the car, so this is as good as it gets sky-wise, but I felt this didn’t really do the power of these falls justice. Next up then is this one – with another couple of small figures to show scale

For me, at least this seems to catch the power of the thing more effectively, in spite of not seeing the whole waterfall. I deliberately kept the exposure as short as possible because I’m no fan of blurred water, and in this case ‘pretty fog’ was never going to be my reaction. My final take  is below. I tried, by allowing the water to blur a little, to capture the speed of the falls, but overall I think it is less effective than the shot above – it lacks scale for one, and there isn’t enough water in the scene.

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