Adam Monk Photo Tours & Images Gallery

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.

The Snæfellsnes Peninsula is North of Reykjavik and seems absolutely crowded with beautiful scenery.  Wild coastline, stunning waterfalls, eerily shaped mountains and lava fields, small stone churches and shaggy Icelandic horses, to name a few of the highlights.  This images is shot from the small stone bridge crossing the river just above Kirkjufellsfoss (the waterfall) looking down the falls to the coast at sunrise, just as the clouds had parted and the light poured in.  Just a few minutes earlier it was a different kind of pouring as it both rained then snowed on me while I waited for the dawn. Hey, not that I’m complaining, the Icelandic people have many sayings about the weather… the one that is relevant here is…  “there is no bad weather, just incorrect clothing”.  I had the correct clothing for a change, even my camera had a rain jacket!

Shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the 28mm  lens.

Photographic Tour to Iceland Early Bird Special expiring soon

Hey I’ve got a couple of spots left on my Photographic Tour to Iceland in August this year, and the early bird special runs out in 3 days.  It saves you about US$400 so if you are thinking of coming, now is the time to book…

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.