europe » Traverse Earth

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.

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 5 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.

Lonely Shack

Europe, Iceland, Travel 247 Responses »

Jul 132012

Across the road from the somewhat creepy “Music House”, in the East-fjords, was this equally creepy shack. It was an odd location, but the mountains in the background were begging to become a picture. I had to act quickly as within a minute the clouds had rolled in and totally obscured the mountains from view.

Romanian Shrooms

Europe, Macros, Romania, Travel 7 Responses »

Jul 112012

I admire photographers who notice the little things. I’ve got an obsession with capturing sweeping vistas and the vastness of the world I encounter. It makes me miss a lot of the small details. It’s nice to spot something small and carefully figure out how to capture it. Tonight’s photo was taken in a stream in Romania. I lay down in the stream and got very wet for this shot. The focus is a little soft, but I like it none the less. It’s a good reminder to remember the little things when I’m out with my camera. One day I may even invest in a macro lens.

Beneath the Basalt, Myvatn, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 20 Responses »

Jul 102012

“Warning, rocks have fallen from the ceiling before and they will fall again”, the sign read.

Could this small hole in the side of this immense lava flow, near Lake Myvatn, really be the entrance to the underground hot springs we’d been hearing about. If it wasn’t, and we were brained by falling rocks that really wouldn’t have felt worth it. Venturing further in we saw water. Then we recognized the familiar sulfur smell of a hot spring. Venturing inside we found a small cavern, beneath the basalt, housing a pool of hot water. Upon shining a light on it we discovered that it was crystal blue, much like the water in the caves here in Bermuda, but it was steaming.

At this point I wanted to tell you what it’s called but can’t find the name (I did find this video showing the entrance though, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj8Fu-si19Q )! I really need to start carrying a notebook. What I do know is that there were two caves. one is used by men, the other by women. We didn’t know which one we were in. In summer, the men’s is too hot to swim in. As we didn’t know which one we were in, we decided not to risk it.

*** Edit: Check out the comments, Charlotte has found the name for me! ***

Flowers Forever, Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 5 Responses »

Jul 082012

If you have a 3 hour drive to make in Iceland it’s probably a good idea to assume that you’ll take 7-8 hours to get where you’re going. Not because of traffic or the roads. There’s very little traffic, and although the roads do get a bit rough from time to time you can generally keep your pace up. The problem is that Iceland is incredible. You’re guaranteed to find lots of places to stop that you had no idea existed. This is what happened in the case of today’s photo. We had already pushed our check-in to the apartment we had in Reykjavik back by 3 hours and were just going to make it on time. Then we entered a field of flowers. We drove through them arguing over whether the big rock rising out of them was an island just off shore or on land. It was on land (I was right :-)). I knew that we were pressed for time but I couldn’t resist pulling down the dirt road to catch some photos of this giant field of flowers. Following taking a few photos, and shooting a time lapse we climbed up on top of the jeep and just sat there for a while. Then we called the owner of the apartment and told him we were going to be even later. We didn’t drive all the way down the dirt road. I like to imagine there’s a campground at the end because when I go back next June I want to spend a couple of nights here.

The (Slightly) Less Beaten Path

Europe, Iceland, Travel 5 Responses »

Jul 062012

Godafoss has to be in the running for the easiest waterfall to access in Iceland. There’s a gas station and souvenir store with a view to the falls and it was our first encounter with tour buses. They were all parked to the right of the falls. So we took this narrow path up the other side of the river and I found this cool little bridge. I recognized it from Trey Ratcliffe’s blog and was shocked to find it! I thought it was in the middle of nowhere. You can tell just how beaten the lesser path is. So much so that the bridge is broken! Even with the Tour buses and souvenir stores, the impressiveness of Godafoss is not diminished. Naturally pictures of this waterfall will follow, they’re just a bit trickier to process than this little old bridge.

Charles Bridge, Prague

Czech Republic, Europe, Prague, Travel 26 Responses »

Jun 282012

This is the last of my photos from Prague, for now, anyway. It’s a great city and I’ll certainly be heading back at some point. This is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Prague, Charles Bridge. It’s pretty difficult to get a shot with no tourists crossing the bridge. I’ve talked about other methods I’ve used involving combining multiple images to mask out any people or just getting there really early. With this shot, it all came down to patience. I set up and waited until there was no one in the way.

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