Here’s another shot of the iceberg washed ashore at Jökulsárlón and the strange shapes they take as they melt.
Oct 132012
Oct 102012
This was shot at Jokulsarlon, Iceland, where icebergs come crashing down from the Vatnajokull glacier and begin their journey out to sea. Some of those icebergs, after melting down enough to escape the narrow exit to the lagoon, become trapped against the shore by the crashing waves. These three were amongst many scattered here, slowly melting away.
The icebergs take on various different colors based on the atmospheric conditions. The black one in the background is the result of volcanic ash frozen into the ice.
Oct 092012
On our way to our hotel in Piedmont, Italy, we drive past these columns and knew that we’d be returning to photograph them at some point. As we rushed home from Lake Como, running late due to a lack of understanding how the ferries worked. My family was waiting for us to join them to go to dinner. Taking photos really wasn’t an option. Then, this sunset began to light the sky. Shortly after we realized we were coming up to these columns and decided we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Our tardiness was punished, however, those vines are covered in thorns and once they wrapped around your leg or arm they didn’t want to let go!
Oct 082012
Taking this photo was a bit tricky. I was struck by the gentle curve and calm lake beneath the overcast sky. Initially, I set my tripod up on the road, but I wasn’t happy with it. I needed to be higher. So, I hopped up onto the Jeep’s hood. My thinking was, it’s a jeep, it should be sturdy. It wasn’t. That hood buckled easier than your average car would! I decided I could get up on the roof, if I stayed over the jeep’s roll cage. This worked at first, but after taking a few shots I realized that my presence on the roof was causing the jeep to move pretty much constantly. I tried jumping off after setting the timer and hoping the jeep would calm down. It didn’t. So, I climbed back up again and stuck in my remote shutter switch. I jumped off and waited for a while before pressing the button. Then, I got the below image.
Oct 072012
Lake Como is a really interesting place and I wish I’d been able to spend more time there. The lake is surrounded by towering mountains rising directly from the water’s surface. Villages are, therefore terraced up the slopes. I thought this one was particularly interesting. There was a dock at water level, but the village didn’t seem to start until quite high up the hill.
Oct 062012
With no music to cut the silence, and my travel buddy passed out next to me, I navigated our little white jeep up and down meandering switchback after meandering switchback. Having only made it half way from our hostel to Latrabjarg, we tucked tail and made our way home for fear of running out of gas. Our first night in Iceland taught us a lesson. If the GPS says it will take 4 hours, it will take ten. The roads are rough, but the real reason is that the beautiful scenery begs you to stop after every bend.
I’d struggled to find a groove on this drive, as I so often do when I dust off the photography skills in a new destination. Then, the sun began to reverse its brief dip just below the horizon and something magical happened. A soft light bathed the landscape, bursting through gaps in the cloud to the north. The birds began to awaken and fill the air with song. Approaching a bend, ascending out of another fjord I suddenly found inspiration. The serenity of the moment seemed to be summed up in the single view captured below. Huge cliffs sat peacefully in the distance as a road twisted and turned its way along the edge of the fjords. There wasn’t another car or person in sight. I’d just driven that stretch, and there was a long way to go until I’d reach a bed, but I had to stop, step out in the cold, and mount my camera atop my tripod and try to do the view before me justice.
Oct 032012
I’ve written about this bridge before (Rickety Bridge, Iceland), but I wanted to show you this view because it raises a couple of questions:
Question 1: It looks pretty old and rickety, is it safe?
Answer 1: Yes, I crossed it a couple of times. I wasn’t thrilled about having to go across it the first time but an error that resulted in my bag staying in frame for the photo posted previously meant I had to nervously tip-toe back and forth an extra time.
Question 2: Why is there a bridge here?
Answer 2 (kind of): I have no idea. The volcano is a long way off, you certainly wouldn’t want to walk it. On top of that, there’s no path on the other side. It appeared to be an island in the middle of the river with nothing but overgrown brush covering it. I doubt the bridge was built for no reason, so it must be a bridge to somewhere, but where? It makes me wonder if the scene takes some completely different appearance in another season.
Is it farmed at some point?
Does it turn into a carpet of wild flowers?
Could it be a great place to watch birds?
Who knows?
I don’t.
Oct 012012
HDR Tutorial
If you’ve been wondering when I’m going to add the next installment of my HDR tutorial I’ve got good news for you! It’s online now: HDR Tutorial 2. In this section I go through the Photomatix portion of producing an HDR image, where the three exposures are combined into one image.
Today’s Photo: Acqui Terme Spring II
If you follow my site regularly you’ll probably recognize the spring in Acqui Terme. I spent a long time waiting for that patch of blue sky amongst the gloomy overcast sky to make it’s way into frame. Once it did I fired off a few shots from different angles. This one shows the detail of the cobbles in front of the spring.
Sep 302012
I came across this farm in the Lake Myvatn region. It was about 11:00 when we got here. As you can see from the clouds we were in for a gloomy rainy night. That’s alright though, it suited the volcanic landscapes we were just about to drive into.
Sep 262012
At the end of a morning out, I was on my way back to the hotel when I spotted this rundown old villa tucked off the roads amongst the vineyards. I pulled over and discovered that the building and trees framed the remnants of sunrise perfectly. So, I set up for the shot.
