Shine On You Crazy Diamond

February 14, 2020
by Michael Scandling
comments 26
Iceland / Inspiration / Photo Log / Photography / Seascapes

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January 28, 2020 — Diamond Beach, South Coast, Iceland

About a half a mile from where the photo in the last post was taken, the lagoon empties into the North Atlantic. Miniature bergy-bits flow out and then are washed back ashore by the tide and the surf. There they sit, shining on the beach awaiting their inevitable trip back into the sea. They look like diamonds. This one seems to be sniffing the air, contemplating its fate.

(Just so you know, during the trip there was the constant subtext of checking the Aurora app on our phones and the Icelandic weather site in the web, hoping for a Kp index of at least three and a relatively cloudless night. So far, no joy.)

(Nikon D850, Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. processing in DxO PhotoLab 3.1; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

Lagoon

February 12, 2020
by Michael Scandling
comments 26
Iceland / Landscape / Photo Log / Photography

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January 27, 2020 — Jökulsárlón, South Coast, Iceland

When you think of a lagoon, don’t you think of white sand, blue water, and palm trees? This is different: black sand, blue water, and icebergs. The ’bergs have been shed by one of the largest glaciers in Iceland. Things happen fast in Iceland: This lagoon didn’t exist sixty years ago and in the foreseeable future, it’ll be a fjord.

(Nikon D850, Nikon 24-120mm f/4G VR. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab 3.1; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

Sentinel

February 7, 2020
by Michael Scandling
comments 17
Impressionism / Photo Log / Photography / Seascapes / Sunrise

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January 26, 2020 — Reynisfjara (Black Sand) Beach, Iceland

It was a dark and stormy morning. The wind-whipped weather was a fierce opponent. The barely risen sun cowered behind the clouds. Photographer and camera were covered in sleet and snow. This emerged from the mist.

From this angle, most photographs of this scene appear to show two sea stacks. Actually, in those shots the one on the left (the one you see here) appears to be one, but is actually two — you can see the other one peeking from behind the right edge. In the interest of simplicity, I decided that three’s a crowd and cropped out the third sea stack that would be on the right.

(Nikon D850, Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. Post processing in DxO PhotoLab 3.1; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

This Shot Was a Gift

February 6, 2020
by Michael Scandling
comments 42
Iceland / Photo Log / Photography / Sunset

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January 25, 2020 — Route 1, East of Reykjavik, Iceland

This shot should not have worked. It was shot through the window of an off-road bus (think rock-hard suspension) going 90 km/h on a not terribly smooth highway. The window was dirty from two days of being splashed with road slush. But it was the first time we’d seen the sun since our arrival. The colors were otherworldly and the land was an Icelandic combination of bleak and beautiful, complete with puffs of geothermal steam.

I had to at least try to record it—more for documentation than art. I clicked off about five shots with no real hope of anything useful and then I immediately shoved them out of my mind. Didn’t give them another thought.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I was going through my images a week-and-a-half later and this appeared. I didn’t even recognize the shots at first. Then it came back to me. The other four shots in the series were a complete waste of electrons: horrible reflections, window-dirt blobs, motion blur. Useless.

But this… This was a gift.

(Canon G5X II. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab 3.1; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

Londrangar View Point, Take Two: True Colors*

February 4, 2020
by Michael Scandling
comments 39
Inspiration / Photo Log / Photography / Seascapes

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January 24, 2020 — Londrangar View Point, Snaefellsjökull Peninsula, Iceland

Taken a few minutes earlier than the one in the post before last, this shows the unaltered colors that the camera recorded. I had previously thought the color was a distortion of reality and blamed it on a brand of filter I’d never used before, but no — the water really is that color.*

The next post will move us forward.

(Nikon D850, Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. ISO 64, 30 sec at f/16; 6-stop neutral density filter. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab 3.1; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

* At least it’s as close as WordPress will allow, because the color I see here is a bit more muted than what I see in DxO and Photoshop. Sigh.

Foss Means Waterfall

January 31, 2020
by Michael Scandling
comments 37
Landscape / Monochrome / Photo Log / Photography / Waterfall

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January 25, 2020 — Kirkjufellsfoss and Kirkjufell Mountain, Snaefellsjökull Peninsula, Iceland

It was a dark and stormy morning. Sun would rise in another fifteen minutes. The wind was… impressive.

Posted from the departure lounge at Keflavik International Airport.

(Nikon D850, Tamron SP 15–30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab 3.1; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)

Velkomin til Íslands

January 24, 2020
by Michael Scandling
comments 37
Iceland / Inspiration / Landscape / Photo Log / Photography / Seascapes

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January 24, 2020 — Londrangar View Point, Snæfellsjökull Peninsula, Iceland

Welcome to Iceland. I’ve never, ever experienced a passport-control officer smiling genuinely and welcoming me before. It happened here. A cold country gave a very warm welcome. Iceland is like that.

Iceland is indeed cold in the winter. There are storms. There are incredible sights to see and photograph. These sea stacks have been captured by thousands of photographers before. Today it was my turn.

(Nikon D850, Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. ISO 64, 30 sec at f/16; 6-stop neutral density filter. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab 3.1; Editing in Adobe Photoshop.)