Uploads from orvaratli, tagged travel, with geodata

Fire Sunset - Reynisdrangar at Vík, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:30:10 -0800

orvaratli posted a photo:

Back to Vík. Shoot a week later than my last Reynsidrangar shot.

Travelling with Brian and Emily we stopped at Vík on our way back home from a 3 day trip to Skaftafell and Jökulsárlón. After staying in pouring rain for 48 hours we arrived at Vík two hours before sunset while it was still cloudy and raining but decided to stay there to see if it would clear up before the sun set. I had a hint it would reading the online weather maps. About 45 mins before sunset a small gap formed in the clouds behind the pinnacles. Knowing that the sun will set behind the pinnacles we went down to the beach while it was still raining to wait for the rays of sun to brake through the gap. Still we where unable to shoot because the wind was driving rain right into our lenses and filters. 15 mins before sunset it stopped raining and the sky started to glow with red colors. The timing was perfect and our plan paid off.

It was a nice end to a good but wet trip.

Green Lines - Snæfell area, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:51:16 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

3rd picture from a 2 x 12 day tour around Iceland.

On route from East towards North Iceland we passed through the highlands around Snæfell. The weather was not the best so we where not expecting much. This small creek with very very green moss was a pleasant surprise. It is such a contrast to the otherwise barren and dark highland deserts that it seems like it is not real. I dont know why it is so green but I do know it is a good foreground element in a photograph. The overcast and sometimes rainy weather actually helped here as the wetness enhanced the color of the moss and the overcast weather offered soft light even in the middle of the day.

The seemingly black water comes from using polarizer to remove the reflection of its surface and because the sand in the bottom of the shallow stream is black.

Noctilucent Clouds - Sun Voyager, Reykjavík, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 03:58:02 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

The Aurora forecast on the 6th of August was predicting extreme Aurora activity. Even though it was very early August and the night would not get fully dark I went out as the Aurora can be seen in deep twilight conditions. I saw the Aurora for a 1-2 minutes that night. I did not get a good picture of it though. Instead we witnessed this even rarer phenomenon called noctilucent clouds.

These are clouds that seem to glow in the night. They are the worlds highest clouds located in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 76 to 85 kilometers. They are very thin and only visible in deep dusk when the sun lights them from underneath and were first witnessed and recorded in 1885. Noctilucent clouds can be seen by observers at a latitude of 50 to 65 degrees north or south and in summer when the mesosphere is at its coldest (-120°C).

These clouds where extremely beautiful to look at and reminded me of the Aurora but where much more stationary and had this beautiful blue color. Some people where actually confusing these clouds with the Aurora as they were told about extreme Aurora activity that night. They where equally interesting to see and photograph as the Aurora.

The sculpture in the foreground is called the Sun Voyager. It is one of Reykjavíks most iconic sculptures and represents a viking boat sailing into the sunset as can be seen on late summer nights. It is a very popular subject amongst photographers and some call it a cliché. Nevertheless it is beautiful and interesting to photograph.

Highland Sunrays - Kjölur, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 14:01:33 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

My first and definitely not the last image from two very successful photo tours around Iceland. 7200km where driven and countless locations visited during this hectic period in July which the result of will be published in the coming days and weeks.

This image was taken with a telephoto lens from Kerlingarfjöll over the desert like Kjölur area in the central highlands of Iceland. After photographing the geothermal area of Kerlingarfjöll we where heading down the mountain to eat a late dinner when we saw the sun bathing the distant mountains in colorful light.

Crater Lake - Landmannalaugar area, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:13:50 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

The unusually snowy central highlands of Iceland are now slowly opening again for traffic. The snowy winter along with a very cold spring and early summer means that there is still alot of snow there and still mostly closed. Landmannalaugar is no exception. There is only one short stretch of road open there now. It will still be a 2-3 weeks until all the roads in the area are open. Until then hiking is a good option.

But having alot of snow on the ground and mountains creates interesting contrast with the otherwise dark landscape.

This image was taken from a hill near Bláhylur at about 2 am when the sun was rising again.

Tail Fin Iceberg - Jökulsárlón, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Sun, 29 May 2011 06:12:57 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

I never get tired of photographing and displaying images from this magical beach below the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon.

January is probably the best month to shoot them. The sun sets and rises into the sea this time of year plus the sun only reaches about 3-5° above the horizon during midday so the sun rays never get the strength to melt and destroy the beautiful blue surface of the ice.

This one was shot last January. This interesting shape got our attention (I was there with my wife and Christian Klepp). It looked like a tail fin of a whale when it starts to dive.

The colors of the scenery where really intense and enhancing and deepening the colors of the sky with a GND filter really helped here.

Grímsvötn the Movie - Grímsvötn Eruption, Vatnajökull, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Sun, 22 May 2011 14:36:43 -0700

orvaratli posted a video:

This is my first go at video editing. I used simple tools so bare with me.

Some of the footage is shot with a 400mm lens in heavy wind and are therefore a little shaky.

The eruption has now covered most south, southwest and southeast part of Iceland with a dense ash cloud. It arrived in Reykjavík couple of hours ago. It is very hard to get any images of it now except from high altitudes in an airplane. This eruption is nowhere as photogenic as the last eruption in Eyjafjallajökull.

The only good thing I can think about this eruption is that the volcano has an name more easy to pronounce than the last one.

Edit: For full length video see Vimeo

Geothermal Blue - Blue Lagoon, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Thu, 19 May 2011 16:17:40 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

This is the famous Blue Lagoon in Iceland. A place every traveler must stop even though it can get crowded at times. The lagoon is actually a industrial waste water pumped into the nearby lava field. This waste water is however not dangerous to ones health but the opposite. It is said to be beneficial to people with skin deceases.

Photographing the lagoon is tricky because of access restrictions and property copyright rules enforced by the owners of the Blue Lagoon facility. I found a spot however where one can freely photograph the blue silica rich lake (or a least that is my official story).

Here in January the midday sun was at its peak. It was just high enough to light up the mist coming from the warm lagoon with warm colorful rays.

Cracked! - Jökulsárlón, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Sun, 15 May 2011 19:00:54 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

One from the archives. This one was taken in 2009 in a intense photo-trip with Lucie Debelkova.

The famous glacier lagoon Jökulsárlón experienced a surge of Icebergs coming from a collapse in the Breiðarmerkujökull glacier which feeds the lagoon with Icebergs. The glacier has been more stable in the last two year although it continues to shrink. The day when the glacier recedes out of the lagoon and stops feed the lagoon with icebergs will be a day when we photographers will morn. This is such an iconic place and it can be photographed in any weather any time of year. Lets hope that day will be far in the future.

On the west bank of the lagoon I found the large interesting boulder which had been cracked in half by frost weathering. The boulder was quite big, about 2 m in height.

Moonlit Mountain - Kirkjufell at Grundarfjörður, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Sun, 01 May 2011 18:14:11 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

This mountain less than 500m high is on my top 5 list of most photogenic mountains in Iceland.

On a still and quiet January night while waiting for the Aurora to appear (which it never did) I had nothing better to do than shoot long exposures of the perfectly reflected mountain under the moonlight. Although it would have been great to have the Aurora aswell, the mountain and the stars where quite interesting.

Snow Shower - Verstrahorn, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 16:33:23 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

On our day of driving from Höfn to east Iceland we passed the maze of fjords of the Eastfjords. As we drove from the cloud-free south towards the stormy north the weather conditions changed each fjord we passed.

Conditions when good weather turns stormy and vise versa are often the ones with the most dramatic light. One of those magic moments appeared just east of Höfn. The sun was just setting and I knew there would be interesting conditions near the jagged mountains of Vestrahorn. We stopped at frozen river planes and waited for the sun to go down.

A dark snow shower passed over us as the sun approached the horizon. Just before the sky turned totally dark and the visibility disappeared the bright sun could just manage to shine through the dense falling snow flakes. The dark dramatic scene was enhanced by use of GND filters.

Icebergs - Jökulsárlón Beach, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:28:29 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

One from my huge collection of icescapes from the beach below Jökulsárlón, Iceland.
This collection grew quite alot on my January winter trip around Iceland with Christian Klepp and my wife. This time was one of my best sessions there mainly because the sunrises where really really long and they where in the right direction towards the sea.

All comments appreciated and are in all cases read thoroughly. Thanks in advance.

The Gate - Arnarstapi, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 04:16:39 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

One more from the our January round trip of Iceland. One of our last locations was Snæfellsnes peninsula. The weather there was pretty bad but as I have learned it can change alot depending on which side of the narrow but steeply mountained peninsula you are. The large glacier capped volcano of Snæfellsjökull (made famous by Jules Verne story "Journey to the center of the Earth") dictates the weather and drive from one side of it to the other often creates wastly different conditions.

Arnarstapi offers alot of nice seascape possibilities. The couple of km long seacliffs to the west has countles seastacks, arches and deep coves.

Two seats just opened on our Iceland 2011 Adventure Photography Tour & Workshop
www.arcticphoto.is/workshops/

Shattered - Svínafellsjökull in Skaftafell, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 04:40:41 -0800

orvaratli posted a photo:

I still have loads of pictures to post from our January round trip of Iceland.

On of the best session this trip was when we least expected it. The weather was very foul, rainy and very very windy. The only place where the wind was not howling was in Skaftafell. Being sheltered by Icelands highest mountain Öræfajökull it provided the only chance of photography that day.

In front of Svínafellsjökull glacier there is a small lagoon that was frozen solid but by no means static. The glacier kept pushing forward shattering the frozen ice like a bulldoser. This collision created some very interesting scenes like this where a sheet of ice has been lifted by the ice and shattered. Combined with the dramatic clouds of the stormy weather this was a very interesting place to photograph.

Crystal Cave - Svínafellsjökull in Skaftafell, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:59:27 -0800

orvaratli posted a photo:

Some of the magic beauty of glacier ice lies under its outer surface. One either needs to strip the surface layer or go underneath it to see its real beauty.

The centuries old ice coming down the slopes of Öræfajökull via Svínafellsjökull glacier has had almost all of the air pressed out of the ice. Once air has been pressed out the ice turns into this magically blue crystal like ice. The outer surface of this ice (the surface of the glacier) gets bombarded by weather, sun-rays, dust and other things and it transforms the crystal blue ice white. Hidden under the white surface is the blue ice.

This blue ice can be seen however under certain circumstances. It can be seen in winter after long periods of rain when the surface layer of the glacier has been washed away. It can be seen in ice-caves like this one (unsafe in summer) and on floating icebergs that have recently rolled over.

This ice cave is on the edge of the glacier where it enters into a lagoon. It is only possible to access it when the lagoon is frozen. Ice caves are in general unstable things and can collapse at any time. They are however much more stable in winter when the cold temperatures harden the ice. Even so we could hear constant cracking sounds inside the cave. It was not because it was going to collapse but because the cave was moving along with the glacier itself. Each time the glacier moved a millimeter loud sounds could be heard.

If you would like to visit an ice cave consider join my Winter Photo Tour

Golden Iceberg - Jökulsárlón, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:47:39 -0800

orvaratli posted a photo:

One more image from my 12 day January tour around Iceland with www.lichtjahre.eu (there is more comming).

This is the popular black lava sand beach below the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon where the river outlet dumps smaller icebergs that flow down the river. The magic of photographing this popular location in January is that the sun rises to the south and you can let it shine through the crystal clear ice just as it crosses the horizon. The colorful sunlight scatters throughout the ice illuminating the whole iceberg. In summer one would have to stand in the sea or river to be able to get a shot like this.

Also, as I am not a morning person I can wake up late (9-10pm) this time of year and still get the sunrise an hour later. That might be influencing my opinion about liking mid winter as the best season to photograph.

I used an reverse GND filter to enhance the color of the iceberg against the sky, placing it all the the to the bottom of the iceberg. There isn´t really much post processing here, just some highlight dampening on the bright top part of the iceberg and some contrast enhancements.

Blue Hour Ice - Jökulsárlón, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:35:10 -0800

orvaratli posted a photo:

The highlight of our 12 day tour around Iceland was definitely the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon area. The weather was cold, crisp and windy with beautiful light the whole time. The lagoon was frozen solid so we could walk onto the ice and wonder around in a maze of ice structures of every imaginable and unimaginable shapes, forms and colors. We spend hours each day just wondering around finding new structures and angles.

And the colors of the ice where just unbelievable, specially during blue hour. I did fiddle with the saturation on this one but I did not increase it. I decreased it.

The centuries old ice has almost all of its air pressed out of it. And during mid winter the surface of the ice does not get destroyed by the ultra violet rays of the sun. These colors and structures can only been seen in summer when an iceberg reveals it bottom side when it has recently rolled over. In summer the sun destroys it in a day, in mid winter this takes weeks. Here some sand blown by the strong northern wind has enhanced the shape of the ice.

I have said it before and I say it again, mid winter is the time of year to photograph near the arctic circle. It is not the most comfortable time of year to photograph but it will give the best results.

Glacier Pool - Svínafellsjökull in Skaftafell, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:28:19 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

From an unusually summer like day last September on a trip with Mai, Dylan and Marianne to Skaftafell and Jökulsárlón. This place is one of my secret locations here in Iceland (well not anymore!). Hidden behind the hotel Skaftafell is a road the leads towards the edge of the glacier where it is an easy walk onto it.

Svínafellsjökull has the most dramatic icefall of Iceland´s glaciers. The 1000m high icefall seen in the background falls from Iceland highest mountain Öræfajökull is constantly moving and loud rumbles can often be heard when huge blocks of ice fall down.

Cold and Still - Aurora at Kleifarvatn, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 09:15:18 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

Finally I got to test my new Nikon 14-24mm lens. Yes, its a Nikon on my Canon 5D MKII. I have been unpleased with the results from my Canon 16-35mm f2.8 when shooting Aurora at large aperture. It is simple not sharp enough outside of the center frame. But I am very pleased with the results from the Nikon, it is simply much better than any of the Canon wide angles even the fixed focal length ones. Being able to shoot sharp images at f2.8 means that I dont have to crank up the ISO as high as I would on my old 16-35mm. The extra 2mm of the Nikon is also helpful when shooting Aurora.

I was also experimenting with a new technique when exposing Aurora shots, the so called Magic Cloth technique. Usually when I shoot landscapes I use GND filters to help bringing out details in the foreground. Doing this with Aurora shots would mean I would have to squeeze the ISO much higher up, I tried that with mixed results.
For this shot I covered the upper half of the image for half the exposure. The upper half is exposed for 30 seconds (the max for Aurora shots) but the foreground is exposed for 60 seconds. It worked brilliantly. No reduced image quality due to high ISO or poor quality resin infront of my glass. Thanks to Iceland Aurora for sharing this technique.

Aurora Explosion - Þingvellir, Iceland

nobody@flickr.com (orvaratli) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:47:42 -0700

orvaratli posted a photo:

This from Easter day last year in Þingvellir national park. The Aurora wasn´t that active. Just like a vague thin green layer in the sky. A larger aperture, high iso long exposure revealed what the eye could not see so clearly.

It is sometimes difficult to really say how active or visible the aurora really was when seeing a picture of it. It is often the less active aurora that is more picture friendly because like any other bright source of light at night a very active Aurora can easily be over exposed compared with the foreground.

The orange glow near the horizon is the light pollution of Reykjavík some 35km away. Often city light is unwanted in night shots but I liked this one as it looks like an explosion which the Aurora burst out from. And yet again, it is my wife posing a model on the edge of the peer, illuminated by a handheld flash light.