Tag: Iceland

Barmur Sunset 5

Barmur Sunset 5

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Before I went to Iceland, I researched some of the locations that I intended to shoot, but had not paid that much attention to Landmannalaugar (pronounced Land-mann-a-loi-ger). This fantastic location, 4 hours from Rekjavik in the interior of Iceland, was a pleasant surprise. Fortunately, the 4WD road had just opened the week before my visit. After driving the final 40 off-road kilometers, two shallow river beds (with a rental car!) were the final obstacles between me and the scenic beauty that I was about to experience. I always try to get to a new location early enough to scout the area because I don’t like to be rushed, but it was definitely time to shoot once the car was parked. The sky was full of perfect cotton-candy clouds and the sun danced across the jaw-dropping scenery. I grabbed my camera gear and quickly set out to explore the river bed to the east of the campground. Within a half-hour of my arrival, I focused my attention on this composition to create this image.

Jokulsarlon Beach Sunset 2

Jokulsarlon Beach Sunset 2

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I’ve been intending to add some new images from my trip to Iceland, but have had a lot going on the last week. I was pretty underwhelmed by the photos that I’d seen of icebergs stranded on the beach in front of Jokulsarlon before my trip, so this location was not a priority for me to shoot. I scouted this location a few times in the middle of the night, but the clouds and light were terrible. I either did not shoot any pictures or deleted most of them once I got home. However, I created this surprisingly beautiful photograph at 12:30am on my last night at Jokulsarlon.  I love the color that the clouds reflected from the midnight sun. This translucent piece of ice made a nice foreground, as well as the repetition patterns of the larger icebergs behind it. This was also as dark as it got during my entire 15 day visit, which was great for shooting but not for sleeping.

Atlantic Puffin 1

Atlantic Puffin 1

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This is my favorite Atlantic puffin image from my Iceland trip. I had wanted to do-over the puffins I shot on my first visit to Iceland 9 years ago. I was glad they were still around, though not in the same numbers I remembered. I only spent 1 night photographing them on the cliffs at Latrabjarg, but was fortunate the sky was clear at sunset which bathed the puffins in golden light. Just when I thought I would have the cliffs to myself, a tour group showed up. I can’t complain because I moved around enough to avoid the puffin-jams and still photographed some beautiful poses. The cliffs are between 50-100m high, so I got as close to the edge as I was comfortable, but people have fallen to their deaths by getting too close, including an unfortunate German tourist a week after my visit. My heart went out to his family when I heard the news. I’ve got many more puffin & Iceland images to share in the weeks ahead.

Jokulsarlon Icebergs Sunrise 1

Jokulsarlon Icebergs Sunrise 1

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My regular readers know that I just returned from my 2nd trip to the beautiful but stark country of Iceland. I had previously visited Iceland in 2001 when I was beginning my photography career but had not yet mastered the camera.  I had several regrets from that 1st trip, so it was nice to put them to rest. Shooting conditions where incredibly difficult due to the constant cloudy weather. Also, because it is summer in the Arctic, the sun barely dipped below the horizon between 12-3am. This made for long nights of shooting, which required me to sleep during the day. I started to appreciate the demanding schedule of vampires. One of the locations that I was determined to photograph was Jokulsarlon. This spectacular lagoon is choked with icebergs that have calved off of the Breidamerkurjokull glacier. Is is an abstract photographer’s dream. I created this atmospheric image when the sunrise light briefly illuminated the tops of the thin layer of clouds at 3am.