Europe » Traverse Earth

Rickety Bridge, Iceland

Aug 112012

I’ve been pretty bad about posting regularly lately. I’m blaming the fact that we’ve just come through Cupmatch in Bermuda. I’ll be getting back on track again now. Although, I’m flying out to Italy today and haven’t prepared any photos in advance! I’m counting on my hotel having a good internet connection. I’m headed up North to the Piedmont region. It’s within range of the Cinque Terre, Portofino and the Alps. So you can expect some Italy photos shortly.

For today, we’re back to Iceland. I spotted this bridge from the road and decided I had to find somewhere to pull over and stop. I found it about a half mile down the road and had to walk back. It was further back than I’d realized. I got here and shot a load of photos from the other side but wasn’t happy with them and couldn’t quite figure out why. Then it dawned on me that there was probably a better view from the other side. So, I had to walk across this bridge. It was a nerve racking experience. I set up and took a photo. In checking the results I noticed a strange black spot on the opposite side. I zoomed in and realized it was my camera bag! So, I had to walk across the bridge two more times than I should have as I had to move my bag!

Prehistoric Lake Myvatn

Europe, Iceland, Travel 3 Responses »

Aug 032012

Driving through the lava field surrounding Lake Myvatn really makes you feel as if you are in the land that time forgot. It’s really surreal. I spent ages at this spot, climbing lava stacks trying to get the image I was imagining. I never quite got it, but I like the patterns in the bottom of the pond captured here.

Turf Roofed Church, Skaftafell Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 41 Responses »

Jul 302012

I’d seen photos of old run down turf roofed houses while looking into visiting Iceland and was really keen to photograph some. There were a couple listed in guide books but we always seemed to be too short on time to detour when we’d get near them. Then, we pulled down a small road to our accommodation in a little village near Skaftafell National Park and we found this! It’s not a turf covered house, but it’s a turf covered church. I feel like it helped satisfy my desire to find some of the old houses. When I go back I’ll definitely make more of an effort to find these photogenic buildings off the beaten track.

Westfjord Mountain Sunrise, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 4 Responses »

Jul 272012

“Screw it, no more pictures let’s get our asses back to bed.”

I think I said that every single night in Iceland. I say night, it was typically more like very early morning. Inevitably though, as soon as I uttered those words we’d round the corner and this would happen. Iceland just will not let you go to sleep. In fact, I’d taken photos here and was making my way back to the car. I was finished. Once again, sleep was the only thing on my mind. Just as I got back to the car I foolishly looked over my shoulder and the sun had just begun to peak up over the mountain. Naturally, I had to walk back down the hill, set up again and take the exact same photo including the newly appeared sunburst.

What do you think of the electricity pylons? Do they ruin the photo or make it? I think they add some interest to the scene, but do you think it would be better if they weren’t there at all?

View the autosave

Atop Gullfoss, Iceland, Looking Upstream

Europe, Iceland, Travel, Waterfall 2 Responses »

Jul 262012

As I failed to post a photo last night, I decided I’d better post something particularly time-consuming to make up for it. Earlier, I checked Trey Ratcliff’s blog Stuck in Customs, where he’d posted a panorama and asked how often people use photomerge in Photoshop. I decided that a panorama would probably be a good option tonight.

So, here it is. This is To get the most of this photo, give it a click to see a larger version. It’s a composite of 7 HDR photos, so 21 in total. I batch process the bracketed images with Photomatix before combining them with photomerge.

Watching the Sunset, Westfjords, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 8 Responses »

Jul 232012

Today’s photo is a rare self-portrait. I had everything all set up for this photo but felt like it needed a scaling factor to help the viewer gauge the immensity of the scene. I shouted for my travel buddy. Unfortunately, she was focused on photographing some little flowers on the other side of a hillock. I reached the conclusion that I’d have to figure out how to do it myself. So, I used my intervalometer to set the timer at 1 min. I sprinted along the edge of the cliff to the outcrop. I stood there for what felt like ages and decided it must’ve gone off. I started making my way back and heard the shutter burst. So, I dropped the timing down to 30 seconds. After running down there again, I heard the shutter while I stood there. Upon inspecting the result I discovered that only half of me had made it into the frame. Next time I walked further out onto the outcrop. You’ll notice in the photo that I’m wearing a t-shirt. Up until this point, I’d been wearing a fleece and rain jacket and was still cold. But, I was wearing all black and didn’t really come out in the photo. So I decided it was time to strip down to my bright red t-shirt. Chilly, I started the timer and ran down. This photo is the result.

Then, I pulled my fleece back on and made my way to the car, quickly.

Godafoss, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel, Waterfall 4 Responses »

Jul 212012

Our first attempt to find this waterfall did not go well. We decided not to use the GPS because it looked really straightforward on the map. Unfortunately, we promptly forgot that we were looking for a turning. When we realized we’d probably gone past it, we got out the gps and discovered we passed the turn about an hour earlier. So, we decided to continue on to Myvatn and visit the waterfall the next day.

Visiting in daytime hours meant that we got to experience the tour bus crew for the first time. To the right of the falls it was very crowded with a number of buses parked up and people rushing around to see the falls and hop back on their buses. On the other side, however, was a small path with very few people on it. I went that way.

In taking this photo I decided not to crop out a tourist taking photos atop the cliff to the right because I thought that would provide a good scaling factor to show the size of these falls. Unfortunately, the tourist is so dwarfed by the falls it’s difficult to notice that he’s there!

Charles Bridge to St. Vitus

Czech Republic, Europe, Prague, Travel No Responses »

Jul 162012

Every time I went out to take photos in Prague I seemed to end up on the Charles Bridge. I’d take off down a random alleyway but always wind myself back to the river and pop out near the bridge. I kept trying to get across it to photograph the other side but always took ages to cross the bridge as I kept getting tempted into photos of the various statues in front of the surrounding landmarks. Maybe next time I’ll have to stay on the other side of the river. That way at least I’ll start out there before spending my whole time on the bridge.

Welcome to Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 4 Responses »

Jul 152012

This is the first photo I took in Iceland. My flight was scheduled to get in at midnight and was delayed by half an hour. It was torture as we approached because I could see the sun was setting. I knew it would be light all night, but the sunset was incredible. It felt like it took forever to get through immigration, get my bag and make my way to the guesthouse. I didn’t spend long in the room as I quickly broke out my gear and took off… successfully leaving my tripod in the room. Fortunately my travel buddy offered to run back and get it while I looked for a shot. I think it was technically sunrise when I took this shot and the color had died down a bit. As you can see it was really windy. Rather than trying to freeze the flowers (which may have been impossible) I decided to increase my f-stop and let them get as blurry as possible.

Vltava at Dusk, Prague

Czech Republic, Europe, Prague, Travel 1 Response »

Jul 142012

The light in Prague when I was there in February really was great. The sun spent most of the day low in the sky so the city was bathed in golden light for a few hours before sunset. This photo was taken from the Charles Bridge and the large building on the left is the Opera House.

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