Iceland
For photographers, creatives, landscape artists and film makers, there is nowhere quite as beautiful, rugged, magnificent and diverse as the Nordic island country of Iceland. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active. The interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains, and glaciers, and many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle
A crack in the Earth - Iceland
A 4-day stopover saw me and my good friend Roy in Iceland. In May the weather was still biting and cold in the wind which didn’t really stop for the whole 4 days. Quite apart from the relentless wind, the landscapes of Iceland are quite beyond anything I have ever seen. It’s difficult to do it justice by committing it to silicon due to the vastness, the remoteness and the unending beauty. Here are a few images from the short trip..
Photographers at Work
beyond the lens..
Neverending skies
There is something quite unique about the skies in Iceland. They just seem to go on forever and the quality of the light is simply stunning. From wide open spaces to up close and personal with mountain vistas, waterfalls and rivers, its almost impossible to not come back with something wonderful!
Distance
It’s difficult to understand or capture the scale of some of the mountains, hills and valleys unless you put in a person to achieve that sense of vastness. Here I caught Roy in the process of shooting a volcano, near to Vik.
Perspective
Being in such a harsh environment focusses the mind on the important things in photography. Working in the field is a thoroughly rewarding experience as it make the photographer work so much harder for the perfect shot, however cold it might be!
Making landscapes
in black and white
composition
Ansel Adams once said that making a colour photograph was like ‘playing a piano that’s slightly out of tune’. He was right. There is something quite abstract about Black and White, it concentrates the mind wholly on shapes, composition and tonality. It doesn’t use colour to rescue an otherwise average picture. There is nowhere to hide with Black and white, shapes have to be right and composition has to be spot on. get it wrong and and the image loses its balance and falls over. Add digital into the mix though and the results can be so evocative.
