When caught in inclement weather at Reynisfjara Beach in Iceland, exploring a cave can be rewarding.
What to do when you’re at an iconic beach location in Iceland and it’s a windy, rainy day? Find a cave!
In August of 2022, we were shooting on Reynisfjara Beach near Vik and the weather was just not cooperating with us, as the rain was coming at us from all directions. At this beach there is a magnificent cave, where I found this…
Natura Artis Magistra
On the basaltic rock columns that protrude seemingly out of nowhere, I found that numerous plants find a way to hold on to the sheer rock and find enough purchase to grow. The contrast between the vivid plant colors and the black basalt makes for a wonderful subject.
The hexagonal columns at this location are the result of lava flows that cooled and contracted, cracking in the distinctive hexagonal pattern that can be seen at a number of locations.
This post is the first in a series of window images, emphasizing their unique role as an interface between a building’s interior and exterior. Today we highlight the Svörtuloft Lighthouse on Snaefellsnes, known for its striking orange color and square shape, situated on a hazardous promontory.
This will be the first in a series of window images that I have captured over the years. Windows are always an interesting subject, as they provide the interface for any building between the interior and exterior. They provide a function of at the same time keeping the elements out and letting part of the elements in, a juxtaposition of functionality.
Let’s kick things off with something rather colorful…
Svörtuloft
The Svörtuloft Lighthouse stands out in the landscape on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula’s landscape, where it sits on a westernmost promontory. Its square shape and orange color contrasts with the black rock upon which it is situated. Built around 1913 its name translates loosely to Black Sky (literal: black air), and it sits in an area that was known for its many shipwrecks, as both the sea and cliffs are treacherous and difficult to navigate.
This spectacular building is well worth a visit on a nice day; during winter months it might be very difficult to get to (I tried and failed in my attempt).
In photography, as in life, we can plan all we like, but that doesn’t guarantee that everything will be just the way we want it. When selecting a location to shoot, taking into account time of day, light conditions and everything else, Mother Nature can always throw a curveball.
And sometimes, you just get lucky…
Reynisfjara Sunrise
The view was simply stunning, providing beautiful reflections and gorgeous shapes! Of course, there was still a bit of a challenge, as shooting into the Sun is not always the easiest thing to do. Despite the bit of blowout from the Sun, I still enjoy this image, as it has a certain mood to it.
This shot came from this year’s February trip to Iceland, and was captured with my Canon EOS R5 using a 15-35mm lens at f/6.3. I used an HDR bracketed sequence to increase the overall dynamic range of this image.
Even a test shot might reveal something interesting.
It’s fun going through some of my wintry images, as I’m working towards a bit more coherence within the set of images to ultimately become the core of my portfolio. As I was looking through some of my Iceland images from earlier this year, I flipped through the folder that holds my Aurora Borealis images and noticed a particular image…
Pre-Aurora Test Shot
As my friend, George Fellner, and I were setting up, I took a quick test shot to get a sense of the exposure values that we would need, as well as some idea about how I wanted to frame the landscape for the sequence coming up.
That’s where this image came in, and even though it’s rather grainy at 6400 ISO there is a certain amount of interest in it; at least for me, as I don’t normally get to see this many stars in the sky. Settings for this shot were 25 second exposure at f/2.8.
If you’re curious about the actual series of images, please take a look (and listen) here: Aurora Borealis on YouTube .
Two aspects of the magnificent Skogafoss waterfall, each majestic in its own essence.
Prior to my February journey to Iceland I had visited the land of Fire & Ice during the Summer. The transformation of the landscape between Summer and Winter is truly breathtaking!
Here is an example of the Skogafoss waterfall, as I experienced it in August of 2022:
Skogafoss with Double Rainbow
The moss on the rocks is a warm green from being in an ideal growing environment combination of moisture and almost never-ending light. The waterfall is providing a great volume of water, as there is plenty of melt from Eyjafallajokull and Myrdalsjokull, the two glaciers that feed the Skoga river.
Winter’s metamorphosis of Skogafoss creates a completely difference sense of place and emotion:
Icy Skogafoss in February
Much of the waterfall’s volume is reduced, as the glaciers are stocking up on snow and ice to take on the return of warmer days; the ice formations are now an integral part of Skogafoss, having captured a goodly portion of the water as it tried to pass by. Nevertheless, Skogafoss’ tell-tale spray persists during this chilling days, although the Sun’s light does not impinge on it at an angle to produce a glorious rainbow.
Both times of year produce a spectacular landscape, each of which draw me in to come back more often and experience the breadth of Iceland’s offerings.
The Aurora Borealis in Iceland was magnificent, as captured in this video!
First of all, greetings to everyone! It’s been too long since my last post for all the wrong reasons.
Great news is my recent return to Iceland for the third time. This was the first foray into the land of Fire and Ice during the Winter season, as I wanted to see even more of the Ice part of this beautiful country. During ten days in February, my traveling companion, George Fellner, and I spent some quality time photographing the amazing landscapes in their Winter glory.
Here’s my first item to share from this epic journey (it’s almost 4 minutes long, and I hope you enjoy all of it along with the soundtrack):
Aurora in Vik, Iceland
This was the first time in my life that I experienced the Aurora Borealis in person, and it was absolutely magical, breathtaking and astounding!
We had scoped out a location ahead of time, which would provide a bit of foreground in the form of the hills that you see in these images; the location is about 20 minutes from the town of Vik, and definitely not the most popular place, as we had it to ourselves. A number of other locations had large groups of people gathered, as we could even hear them in the quiet of the night.
After setting up around 9 pm, I spent some time ensuring that all the camera settings were within a range that would work, dialing in the exposure on my remote trigger. Just after 10 pm, the first glimpses of the aurora started showing in the sky, much to our excitement! For the next hour we were treated to this magnificent celestial display.
For the photography nerds, these images were capture on the Canon EOS R5 using the 15-35mm f2.8L RF lens. I kept my aperture wide open at f2.8 and set ISO to 800. During the shoot I made some adjustments to exposure lengths depending on strength of the aurora; exposure was typically around 20 seconds.
Sometimes, as I’m looking at some of my older photos, a bit of nostalgia creeps in with the memories of places visited and people met. Perusing some of my images from my June 2015 short trip to Iceland, I came across a set of shots that I took as I had followed the road beyond Siglufjörður along the coastline in the direction of Haganes.
If you ever get the chance, this is a lovely drive albeit it a bit of a winding road, as you climb the hills and follow the contours. At one point, I caught this view…
The Road Above and Below the Clouds
Literally, this road takes one above and below the clouds! The low-hanging cloud banks are above the water on this side of Haganes, providing a cozy blanket in which to wrap the peaks beyond the town.
As I processed this photo, I was struck by the light conditions, as the overall light was a bit of hazy blue; rather than process this out of the image, I chose to keep it, as I felt it gave a sense of an old image from days gone by. It also reminded me that I want to go back to Iceland again and again, as there is never enough time to capture all of its beauty.
For quite a while, I have heard the NPR commercial for Planet Money that mentions “Learn how Justin Bieber saved the Icelandic economy” and had no idea what they were talking about, as I’m not a Belieber.
During my photo tour of Iceland I got the answer to this mystery, as our fearless leader, Loren Fisher, mentioned that several of our locations were in a Justin Bieber video. Here’s one of them…
Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon
This is a view looking from Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon, which is a stunning area to visit, as you can see; in the above image, we’re looking back in a southerly direction toward the Ring Road looking down the Fjaðrár river. The name of this canyon is probably one of the more difficult Icelandic words to pronounce; it is a combination of two words: Fjaðrár, the name of the river, and gljúfur, which just means canyon.
This canyon is gorgeous and fun to explore, as it’s only about 2 kilometers long; just leave your fear of heights in the car, as it does have a depth of 100 meters (300 ft), which can be intimidating when viewed from the edges (as I experience a certain amount of vertigo at heights, I tend to be aware of this).
Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon II
One of the things that really stood out for me are the soft grasses and mosses on the outcroppings into the canyon. They look rather inviting to lie down and take a nice nap (on a drier day), while listening to the wind and the water playing their tunes.
As the weather was a bit fierce, we didn’t spend a lot of time here. It does make me want to come back at some point to hike the canyon from the lower vantage point of the river’s edge. Be mindful that this does require an occasional bit of wading through the Fjaðrár, which will mean very cold water!
Here’s the Justin Bieber video with all the great Icelandic sights: “I’ll Show You”.
I can honestly say that it was fun to see the video and recognize numerous locations that we’d visited; also, I definitely didn’t pull some of the stunts that Bieber did, as they look genuinely risky without a crew to catch you!
A note about the photos; they were taken with a Canon EOS R5 and a Canon RF 24-105mm f4/L IS USM lens. As this was a rather overcast day, I had inserted a Kolari Vision Iridium color enhancing rear filter; I discovered these filters shortly before going on the Iceland trip and really like them, as they allow one to swap lenses and keep the same filter.
There maybe something interesting besides the beach at Reynisfjara!
One of the possibly underrated stops during our Icelandic photo tour, was at the Reynisfjara black beach near Vik; it was a relatively short stop, as we were leaving Vik with our major attraction being the Strokkur geyser and the massive Gullfoss waterfall. Additionally, it was a drizzly, rainy morning and heavily overcast skies.
You might think that this is not a recipe for great photography; of course, it could be an opportunity to take some different shots from the usual beach pictures…
Reynisfjara Basalt
The basalt columns at Reynisfjara are magnificent to behold and I’ve found that examining the structure provided by these magnificent columns presents an interesting mix of points of view. Seeing how they line up in front of the lens and the patterns they generate is one of my favorite ways to explore this type of wall.
There’s much more than just the patterns and textures, as Nature conquers every possible opportune spot…
Cave Flora
This plant found just enough soil to hold onto the basalt column and present some pretty little flowers. Of course, there are also plenty of mosses, which one expects. These plants with their paper thin white flowers really stood out.
Elemental Damage
Of course, the elements do claim some victims among these plants, which does present an image that is a bit more tragic, yet interesting.
