Yet another image shot after pulling the van over to the side of road in Iceland whilst on the way to some where else. Yet another unscheduled stop in a landscape that is almost inconceivably beautiful.
My biggest problem in Iceland was finding places where I could pull over… The roads are all built up quite high above the landscape, I guess they get a lot of flooding there, and there is no road shoulder so no room to pull over. So every 5 minutes when I went driving past something spectacular my biggest concern was finding somewhere to pull over without going off the side of the road into the landscape.
So, just another magic spot somewhere off the road in Southern Iceland.
Shot on the Hasselblad H4d-60 and the 28mm lens, with a 6 stop ND filter. Needs a bit of pst processing work, but I think it has potential…
Iceland Photo Tour Update.
I have the itinerary finalised for the August 2015 tour of Iceland, now I just have to get all the hotels confirmed to finalise costing and then we are ready to start booking. More news soon.
Looking back on the last few posts of Iceland it looks like Iceland is just a land of waterfalls. Not that that’s bad, but it’s only a fraction of the story… I do have many more shots of waterfalls to go yet! So just for a change, here is a shot without a waterfall visible. Instead I have a tiny Icelandic Church, and a whole bunch of mountains. I love these wild cloudy skies, so much more spectacular than endless blue. Some days in Iceland the cloudy skies were so amazing I went out and just took photos of clouds… Just clouds.
Click on the image to get a bigger version and see the church… or you can look at the zoomed crop below. There are advantages to having 60 Mega pixels to play with.
This image was shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the 100mm f2.2 lens.
Land of Ice and Fire Photographic Tour 2015
If you would like to see Iceland up close and personal, I am running a photographic tour there next year for 10 days beginning August 25th. I’m still working out the final details of the itinerary and costings, but all the details will be on my Iceland Photo Tour Page as soon as it’s all finalised. From that page you can also send me a quick email if you would like to go on the mailing list for early warning.
Godafoss waterfall in Iceland is a pretty special place, so I stayed there for a sunset and a sunrise and shot it from both sides. At least somewhere above the clouds there was a sunset and a sunrise. Fortunately overcast light works really well for waterfalls, so although it seems like it I am not really complaining. The clouds were beautifully defined with lots of great heavy texture, I even got some colour in the clouds above the falls for this shot. This is pretty much the raw capture with a few minutes of tweaking in Lightroom, mostly just contrast and white balance. I think this one will come up nicely with a little bit of digital magic.
To shoot images of Godafoss waterfall you can choose from both sides of the falls, and many different High and low perspectives. This is the low down perspective shot right on the water level. There was water spray everywhere, so it was wipe and shoot again.
Shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the 28mm lens. Don’t forget to click on the image to get a bigger version.
Godafoss or rather Goðafoss, as it is correctly spelled in Icelandic is the waterfall of the Gods, or the waterfall of the big chief… depending on how its translated, I’m told. I’m not speaking much Icelandic at this stage, though I am working on it…
Legend has it that about 1000 years ago the head of the Norse community in Iceland, the Lawspeaker, after converting to Christianity, threw the statues of the Nordic Gods into the river from the top of the Falls, at least that’s how the story goes. Either way, it is one of the most spectacular places I’ve yet been, and somehow the waterfall of the Gods is a fitting name.
This shot was just after a very grey dawn with lots of spray finding the lens of the camera. There was lots of wiping in between shots, and the camera had a rain jacket on. Its shot on the Hasselblad H4d-60 with the 28mm lens.
Photo Tour of Iceland 2015.
I have dates for the first Photographic Tour of Iceland for 2015, we will be in Iceland from August 25th until September 3rd 2015. I don’t have all the details yet, a few things like price we are still working out, but for the latest you just need to keep watching the Blog, or go to the Iceland Photo Tour Page.
I didn’t think I had time to visit Litlanesfoss waterfall on this trip, but the road had other ideas. I was following highway 1 around Iceland, making detours at various places to get to spectacular spots. In this case though I had continued on straight thinking I was on highway 1, but at some intersection highway 1 had turned right and the road that continued straight on had become another road… even though it looked exactly the same and there was only a small sign to indicate otherwise. Seems I was meant to come here.
It was grey, windy and occasionally raining, so perfect weather for waterfalls really. The overcast conditions and wet rocks all conspired to bring out the colour in the stone and the ubiquitous green of the stunning Iceland moss. Yes, it really is this colour!
Image shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the 50mm f4 lens
The first few of days I was in Iceland on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula the weather was nuts! It rained every day, the wind blew like crazy, and it snowed… sometimes all at once. Apparently that’s normal, and the Icelanders say if you don’t like the weather, wait another 5 minutes. It really is true. I would pull up to a location and the car would be rocking on its suspension from the wind blowing so strong and visibility would be 10 metres due to the rain… then a few minutes later, it would be calm and dry… or at least calmer and dryer.
Of course the best thing about weather like this is the wonderful skies with wild clouds zooming overhead at high speed. It makes for a great place to play with ND filters and long exposures. For this shot below, I was literally hanging off of the tripod to stop it blowing off the cliff, with camera attached… a camera that costs more than my car… actually a lot more than my car.
Shot with the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the 28mm lens and an ND 1.8 (6 stops)… and 78kg (Me) clinging to the tripod…
Kirkjufell on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula of Iceland is a mystical mountain that looks like something out of Lord of the Rings, in fact it may have even been used in the Lord of the Rings. I didn’t see any Hobbits, but then it was about 2 degrees and raining when I was there, so they were probably all at home in front of the fire! The waterfall strategically placed in front of Kirkjufell, Kirkjufellsfoss (Foss is Icelandic for waterfall), only adds to the magic of the place, especially for photographers.
Shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the 28mm lens at sparrows fart with frozen fingers! This image has had about 3.5 minutes of post processing in Lightroom (along with the 2 previous images), so it looks very “raw”.
Autumn colours in Iceland are mostly pretty subtle, they don’t have much in the way of forests to turn bright orange and red. What they do have is a wonderful variety of small perennial plants that turn beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow… There is also an abundance of amazing waterfalls in Iceland… Though not strictly a waterfall, Hraunfossar is beautiful none the less, especially in Autumn.
Just a short drive out of Reykjavik, But it seemed to take ages as I wanted to stop every 20 metres! Shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the 100mm lens.
Back in Amsterdam after an intense 10 day whirlwind tour of Iceland and driving nearly 2000km. All I want to do just now is sleep, something I didn’t do very much of over there. But before bed here is a picture from the first day or so of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula Lava field with this amazing moss that really is this green. Really!
Image shot with a Hasselblad H4D-60 and a 50mm Lens. So did Iceland live up to my expectations? Oh yes!
Some more stormy moody skies from last years Bhutan Photography Tour, this time over the Chumey valley in Bumthang, Central Bhutan. This is one of my favourite valleys in Bhutan, it is wild and open and the main road, which is the only road is a small winding one that is only 1 lane wide that meanders across the valley and then up through the passes.
I think this image is really defined by the sky and all the moody texture with sunbeams breaking through the clouds. Imagine it with Blue cloudless skies… It really wouldn’t be a “keeper” at all like that would it?
This was shot using the Hasselblad H4D-60 and the Hasselblad HC 100mm f2.2 lens. I shot it with the panoramic crop in mind and simply cut off the top and bottom… Having 60 megapixels to play with is very handy!
The “small” building on the ridge with the sunlight falling on it is actually one of the King’s Palaces. This image looks fabulous blown up big and actually featured in an international exhibition on Bhutan in Copenhagen earlier this month, as did the one from the previous post.
My next Photo Tour to Bhutan will be leaving in April 2015, dates and costings are being finalised right now and details will be up soon
