Iceland » Traverse Earth

Sheep on the Mountain, Iceland

Aug 132012

Sheep in Iceland

On our first night in Iceland we stayed in a little guesthouse near the airport. The next morning, the owner gave us a lift back to the airport to pick up our Jeep. He had one piece of advice for us. In summer, the sheep are allowed to roam free in Iceland and would be all over the roads. Further, if we saw a mommy sheep and a lamb on opposite sides of the road we should be very careful because when the lambs get scared they’ll run straight to their mother no matter what. This piece of advice came in handy on a fair few occasions. It was really remarkable just how many sheep there were about, just roaming free. We spent a lot of time wondering how they round them back up. We asked a few people, and got all different answers, none of which really seemed particularly convincing.

Today’s Photo: Sheep on the Mountain

These guys didn’t cause us a problem, they were a safe distance from the road. This photo was taken on our first full night in Iceland, in the Westfjords. I only shot 3 exposures on this one as the dynamic range in the scene did not require the 7 exposures I used to default to. I’ve gotten much better at reading a scene and being able to tell if I can get away with 3 exposures or if I need more. I still recommend that if you’re new to HDR or a little unsure about the scene you should shoot as many bracketed images as you can. If you get home and realize you’ve got more than you need you don’t have to use all of them. If you don’t have enough range in your images chances are you won’t be able to produce the results you want.

The Rift, Iceland

Iceland, Travel 1 Response »

Aug 072012

Snorkeling the Rift, Iceland

On my last night in Iceland I left Reykjavík for the Pingvellir national park to go snorkeling between the North American and European Plates. Last year, we’d done a Manta Swim Kona in Hawaii, so it was only fitting that we went some other place this time. It’s a surreal experience as you descend the stairs into the 2 degree water, protected by a dry suit. The clarity of the water is stunning. Granted that through the mask, which I brought after carefully reading a water sports full face masks review, the water appears a little muddled, you still would feel like you can see down forever. It’s glacial melt that has taken a very long time to trickle through volcanic rock, making it incredibly pure and clear. It also tastes absolutely delicious. I spent a good deal of the trip guzzling the water… then sputtering a bit as I tried to roll over and get my head back above water.

We snorkeled for about 30 minutes and then our guide took us to something he called the brain freeze – a cliff jump into the freezing cold water. It wasn’t particularly high but the thought of the water rushing into my neoprene hood made me nervous. To get myself to jump I had to repeat, “it’s just like jumping off a cliff in Bermuda, just like Bermuda”.

Contacting the cold water was such a rush I decided I had to go again. By this point I’d taken off my best heated gloves. This gave me a real feel for just how cold 2 degree water is. As soon as I came up for a breath my hands were already throbbing. I got out pretty quickly.

Today’s Photo: The rift, Iceland

As we approached the rift I’d spotted a waterfall tumbling into one of the many cracks in the Earth’s surface in this area so we went back there straight after getting our dry-suits off. A wooden pathway guided us there. On the way back I noticed another path, worn into the grass, leading to the cliff running alongside. I decided I had to climb it, which wasn’t easy carrying all my gear. In hindsight I’m not sure it was best idea in the world, particularly as getting down was even more difficult. At the top I found the giant crack in he surface of the Earth featured below.

I tried shooting this with my usual 7 exposures for when I’m using a tripod. However, due to the particularly high dynamic range of the scene, when I reviewed the results, I realised that I hadn’t captured the full range. So, I tried again by bracketing at -4,-2, and 0 and then again at 0, +2, and +4. This did the trick. When it came to processing I used the better of the two regular exposures and achieved the result below.

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 34 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 7 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!

Welcome to Iceland

Europe, Iceland, Travel 3 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 235 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.

Older Entries Newer Entries