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I wonder if the views I found so spectacular in Iceland are so spectacular to an Icelandic resident who grew up there, or is it just that it’s so different to where I am from that makes Iceland so unique to me?  I wonder if I will ever truly know the answer to this question, and in fact if it actually matters?

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Kirkjufellsfoss on the  Snæfellsnes Peninsula in Iceland has got to be perhaps the most ideal of landscapes, it’s a landscape photographers dream location. First there is the mountain, Kirkjufell, which from this angle has a lovely alluring shape, especially with a sprinkling of snow on it.  Then there is a beautiful glacial river and waterfall that runs right past it, and then from the waterfall to Kirkjufell you are facing roughly North-West, which is ideal for dawn colours in clouds.  The trick is to be prepared for those random rain showers, snow flurries and near cyclonic winds, but it’s ok, it doesn’t seem to last very long so you just need to wait it out to get your shots.

This is of course the same location as the previous post, and a much earlier post from several months ago Kirkjufellsfoss at Sunrise, all three images were shot on the same morning only a few minutes apart from different spots around the scene.  I’m sure there are many more possible shots at this lovely location and I’m looking forward to returning later this year with my Photographic Tour to Iceland to explore it a bit further.

This image shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 and the 28mm lens.

Another image from my favourite gorge in one of my favourite places, Hamersley Gorge Karijini National Park.  This image was shot in the early morning before the sunlight enters the gorge and burns out all the colours in the rocks and the water.  Because Hamersley Gorge is outside the main part of the Karijini National Park, not only does it receive less visitors, but they also arrive much later,  so few people see this spectacular gorge in the most beautiful light of pre sunrise or twilight.

I know a secret little campsite nearby, so I can get there very early in the morning and I usually have this gorge to myself (and the birds and wallabies) for many hours before the first visitors arrive for the day.  This feels like an enormous privilege, one I enjoy immensely.

This image shot on the Hasselblad H5D-50 with the HCD 28mm Lens

Karijini National Park is one of the true gems of Western Australia, or the world really.  It’s like nowhere else on Earth I have ever been, especially Hamersley Gorge, which is the place that visitors to Karijini often miss because it’s outside of the park and requires a considerable drive to get there.  That’s a shame really, since I think it’s probably the most beautiful gorge in a National Park full of beautiful gorges.  Hamersley Gorge is the location where the age of the rocks and the folded layers in the Earth are most pronounced and visible, it’s where I feel most strongly the brevity of human existence.

Shot on the Hasselblad H5D-50 with the 28mm lens, very early in the morning.

Another image from Rudell River National Park in the Central Pilbara Region, this one from the ridge just outside the Desert Queens Bath, a magic waterhole hidden away within the National Park (coming up in another post).  This was shot at sunrise across the plains into the light, which provides the glowing halo around the spinifex plant.

Shot with the Hasselblad H5D-50 and the 28mm lens.

Something a bit more local, from my quick trip to the Pilbara region last year.  This Image from Rudell River National Park, an amazingly isolated National Park in the Central Pilbara Region of WA, right on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert.  In fact, Rudell River National Park is WA’s largest and most isolated National Parks, and considering how isolated the whole of WA is that is really saying something.

This image is a very simple one of a couple of Ghost Gums in the twilight afterglow, it’s a 2 minute exposure, which is the practical limit for the Hasselblad H5D-50 that I borrowed for the trip (the H4D was having a holiday in Sweden).  If you look very closely you can see the faint pink clouds in the background.

Yet another Icelandic waterfall, Selfoss is about 1km upriver from the massive Dettifoss on the Ölfusá river, in the North East of Iceland.  From Dettifoss (previous Blog Post), I ran all the way trying to get a shot with some of that great colour still in the sky…  Just made it.   The landscape around these two waterfalls is almost how I imagine the moon to be, but with water, or rather as if a glacier had just passed through here.  There are no trees and almost no vegetation at all in this region, just miles and miles of volcanic rock and boulders.  The only greenery around is the ubiquitous Icelandic moss, that grows over the lava fields softening the landscape.  It’s a place where you can really imagine yourself a million years in the past just after an Ice age, or in fact in the middle of one.

This Image of Selfoss in Iceland was shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the 50mm f3.5 lens.

I think it’s time for a couple more waterfalls from Iceland, the country that has literally thousands of waterfalls!  This first one is Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Iceland and thus Europe.  The vast volume of water and the huge drop over the edge into the ravine below means that this is a very wet place to stand, the spray from this waterfall sometimes extends hundreds of metres into the air above and around the falls.  The day I took this shot I had planned this as my sunset destination, though as I had so many unscheduled stops for roadside attractions (See previous Blog posts for explanation) I barely made it.  The weather had been overcast and rainy all day, which is perfect for Icelandic landscapes, but it didn’t look like I would get much of a sunset at all.  Well I couldn’t actually see the sun setting, but the clouds opened up enough to allow some great colour just after sunset.  The wild colours in the sky, combined with the massive waterfall and the bleak treeless landscape made for a surreal and otherworldly look to the image.

Image of Dettifoss waterfall Iceland, shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 and the 50mm f3.5 lens… with lots of wiping of the front lens element…

A bit of wild Icelandic coastline today, I think it may be time soon for some more waterfalls, or perhaps some ice as Perth swelters at 41° today!  Later though, for today it’s Hvítserkur and a piece of wild Icelandic coastline from the Eastern shore of the Vatnsnes Peninsula in the North West Region.  The road to this spot is not really a road at all, more of a series of closely spaced potholes strung together in a line… Done is such a cunning way that in avoiding one you hit two or three even bigger ones.

I arrived here late one evening in my camper van, thoroughly shaken about and spent a restful night listening to the waves pounding on the 15 metre high stone stack that is called Hvítserkur, which means “White Coat” in Icelandic, due to all the bird droppings…  Not so romantic.  Much more romantic is the legend about the monolith.  It said to be an ancient troll that was caught in the daylight and turned to stone, preventing it from destroying the bells of the local monastery.

By dawn the sea had calmed and the wind was still, just perfect for a quiet walk down the rocky beach for sunrise.

Both these images shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 and the 28mm f4 lens.

Happy New Year!

I almost forgot, we are starting a new year with lots of new possibilities.  Still a few spots on my Icelandic photography Tour in August of this year, its going to be awesome!

This is another almost side of the road shot.  I didn’t actually shoot it from the side of the road, but I did see the house as I was driving and so pulled over to have a look (see previous posts about the difficulty of puling over in Iceland).  I ended up hiking over fields and climbing over fences for nearly an hour until I could get the view I wanted, with the river and the power lines receding into the background and the little house placed just right to really give scale to the mountains behind it.  Or rather, for the mountains to dwarf the tiny house in the landscape.

I don’t think it’s a house that’s lived in all year round, it seems more like a summer pasture house for a shepherd, or perhaps a holiday house  for hobbits?  Imagine the real estate ad… For Sale, small isolated cottage with large mountainous backyard, ideally situated with river views and plentiful supply of electricity…

This image shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the 50mm f3.5 lens.

Iceland photo Tour, August 2015 half Full.

It’s only been a couple of days since I sent out the newsletter and my Photographic Tour to Iceland next August is now half full.