This image is shot just after sunset a few days after winter solstice. In spite of the low quality JPEG and the limited gamut of the sRGB color space, which does not do this image justice, I hope you get an impression of the quality of the light at this time of year and time of day.
The week leading up to Christmas the weather has been quite cold, but temperatures rose and we have had a lot of snow. With the mild weather and the snow the fog rolled in and wrapped everything in a special kind of light where all distant objects and features blur into shadow like features. Like this tree line which is just a couple of hundred meters away.
We are approaching the winter solstice, and where I live the sun barely gets higher than seven degrees above the horizon this time of the year. To put this into perspective - if you extend your arm and close your fist, the height of your fist represents about ten degrees. The sun rises around nine in the morning, and sets at about three in the afternoon. The light in the hour before sunrise and after sunset can be quite special though.
Here is another example of basalt columns. This is from the Black Beach west of Vik. The sand consists of grains of black volcanic rock, and even faint sunlight will make the sand warm to the touch. (And for the fans of Bon Iver, if you have seen the "Holocene" video, these are the very columns the boy is climbing on towards the end of the video. You'll find the video on Vimeo.)
PhaseOne 645DF, IQ160, Schneider Kreuznach LS 80mm f/2.8 - ISO50 f/9 at 1/30s
Svartifoss in Skaftafell National Park is one of Iceland's iconic waterfalls. The basalt columns cover the wall of the bowl shaped basin carved over time by the water. These basalt columns are said to have inspired the icelandic architect Guđjón Samúelsson, and Hallgrímskirkja church in Reykjavik is one of several building which have column like features resembling the basalt columns seen here.
PhaseOne 645DF, IQ160, Schneider Kreuznach LS 80mm f/2.8 - ISO50 f/18 at 0.8s
There is just something about the clear, translucent ice that fascinates me. The way it catches and scatters the light. Here are a few more examples from the Iceland PODAS. The first two images are taken shortly before sunset, and the low angle of the sun really makes the clear ice shine. The ice only stays clear for a few hours. As soon as it is exposed to warm air and sunlight the ice will become opaque and appear white due to a steadily growing number of small cracks. You can see this in the third image. Eventually the chunk of ice will break apart, turn over and expose a new portion of clear ice.
PhaseOne 645DF, IQ160, Schneider Kreuznach LS 150mm f/3.5 - ISO50 f/12 at 1/160s
PhaseOne 645DF, IQ160, Schneider Kreuznach LS 150mm f/3.5 - ISO50 f/10 at 1/160s
M8, Summicron 35mm, ISO160 f/5.6 at 1/1000s
This is an image from the Jökulsárlón on the south western coast of Iceland. According to my guide book the lagoon formed as the Breiđamerkurjökull, a branch of the Vatanjökull complex, retreated during the decades following 1920. The size of the lagoon has increased fourfold over the past 40 year, and since 1930 the glacier front has retreated more than 1,5km from the seafront and the lagoon now covers an area of almost 20 square kilometers.
PhaseOne 645DF IQ160, Schneider Kreuznach 150mm/3.5 - f/22 at 15s
A thin layer of fresh snow cowered the ice, and the thin line left by a couple of skaters reminded me of some of the tapestries or charcoal drawings by the Norwegian artist Jan Groth.
Since it has been a week of PODAS Iceland posts, I thought I'd round of the week with a video I found on Vimeo, "Midnight Sun | Iceland" (http://vimeo.com/30581015) Hope you like it.
Daniel Bergman, our local guide and nature photographer, told us that the alaskan lupin is changing the icelandic landscape. Initially the lupin was planted to bind and improve the soil, but the conditions for the alaskan lupin are near perfect with few, if any, competitors. The spread of the lupin will impact the local flora and fauna. There is a patch of the lupin which stretches from the church and all across the lower part of this image. The hillsides are still untainted though, and I hope it stays that way.
PhaseOne 645DF, IQ160, Schneider Kreuznach 80mm f/2.8 - ISO50 f/5.6 at 1/250s
This is also an image from the evening shoot at Seljalandfoss. It is from the small stream that runs from the pool beneath the waterfall. I like the way the setting sun reflected of the cliff face and the sky color the waves. Even with these reduced quality sRGB JPEG files you get an impression of the image quality. Below you will find a detail from this image where you can see the patterns formed by the specular highlights (at 50% of original resolution).
PhaseOne 645DF, IQ160, Schneider Kreuznach LS 80 mm f/2.8 - ISO50 f/16 at 0.4s - 1200 x 900 pixles (original 8984 x 6732)
Seljalandfoss is one of Iceland's many well know waterfalls. It is easily accessible and photographed by thousands of photographers, amateurs and professionals alike. The cliff face the water falls from is overhanging, and there is a path behind the waterfall; there is every opportunity to take a picture from almost any angle.
One option, with the sun setting, would be to freeze the water and choose an angle which would emphasize the rainbow reflected by the spray forming as the water hit the pool beneath the waterfall. Another to use a slow shutter speed, or ND filters to smooth out the water. But none of this would convey my perception of the waterfall - the force and power of the water gushing over the cliff edge. The force that you can feel as you get close to rushing water. So I dropped the tripod and started to experiment.
One of the things that occurred to me was that by choosing a slow shutter speed and panning the camera to follow the flow of the water, just like a speeding sports car, I was able to achieve what I was looking for - an image, which to me, captured the waterfall the way I saw it. Then it was just a question of details like finding a spot where the light fell from the right direction and getting close enough to keep the details from the surroundings at a minimum.
PhaseOne 645DF, IQ160, Schneider Kreuznach LS 80mm f/2.8 - ISO50 f/22 at 1/8s
