Month: December 2016

Iceland in 16 Days: Day 6, North Iceland, Selfoss Waterfall

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Selfoss and Dettifoss are a pair of waterfalls on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river. You arrive at Dettifoss first. A short 10-minute hike or so leads to Selfoss.

I was driving like mad to get to this location, fearing we would be too late for sunset. We were, in fact, too late for Dettifoss. The waterfall was in deep shadow. The light was gone.

I figured we would have to come back the next day, but we took the path to Selfoss. Although Selfoss is lower in elevation, light from the setting sun had a clear path. The result was a magnificent rainbow, the best I have ever seen.

The light was quite bright, and a polarizer barely provided enough light reduction to smooth out the water.

I did not help matters one bit by shooting at ISO 160 instead of 100. It was an accident that I did not catch. Not wanting to overexpose the the highlights, I made a second mistake by underexposing the shadows. That would have helped smooth out the water as well.

Feature Shot Details: Canon 16-35MM F4 L lens at 24MM, ISO 160, F/16, 1/5 second.

Water on the rocks above is not from the river, it’s an accumulation of spray.
Details: Canon 16-35MM L lens at 16MM, ISO 160, F/16, 0.4 seconds.

The above shot is looking across the scene.
Details: Canon 24-105MM F4 L lens at 65MM, ISO 160, F/22, 0.4 seconds.

Shooting at F/22, as I did, is a mistake. That focal length is not as sharp as mid-range F-stops. From this distance F/11, focused on the waterfall would have been about right (there was no foreground to keep sharp). However, F/11 it would not have blurred the water like I wanted.

The solution, as I have mentioned before , is a set of neutral density filters. Polarizers can help, but you have to be careful in how they are rotated or they will obliterate the rainbow. A better choice would have been a neutral density filter. I now carry B&W ND filters of strength 3.0 (10 stops), 1.8 (6 stops), and 0.6 (2 stops). Six stops would have changed the exposure to 2 seconds or so at F/11.

Spray from Selfoss is intense, with emphasis on intense. You don’t exactly get soaked, but if the wind is blowing towards you, which it was for us, your lens will be covered with spray between every shot.

Have a box of lens cleaning tissues handy. Even though I wiped the filter between every shot, I spent a very long time in Lightroom removing spots caused by spray on the filter. Many shots were so covered with spray as to be unusable.

I also took some images with a Canon 14MM F2.8 L lens, capturing the complete rainbow plus more of the side waterfall. The images were beautiful except for one thing: The water looked awful (frozen, not silky), so I tossed the images in the digital bit bucket.

The problem was of my own making.

The 14MM lens does not take outside filters but it does take gel filters in the back, and I had them with me.  However, I was not about to be fiddling around with gel filters with all that spray and with the light changing fast.

If you have a 14MM lens and are going to be photographing waterfalls, put the gel filter in ahead of time. For further discussion please see the section on the 14MM L lens in My Equipment List.

Rainbow Tips, Rainbow Math

The apex of a rainbow is 180 degrees from the sun. You will not see a rainbow looking towards the sun. If you see rainbows images that face the sun, they are fake. Here, you can see the light on the waterfall and the foreground rock. The rainbow is from sunlight refractions through the spray, just like a prism. There is no rainbow in the third image because camera positioning was at a right angle to the sun.

When looking for rainbows, make sure the sun is at your back. The lower in the sky the sun is, the higher the rainbow apex.  At noon, depending on latitude, rainbows may be below the horizon, invisible. Thus, it is appropriate to consider terms like “rainbow rise” and “rainbow set”.

The huge, more than 180 degree arch in the second shot is because the sun is on the horizon and the foreground was below the horizon.

From an airplane, it is possible to see a 360 degree full circle rainbow.

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Up Next: North Iceland, Dettifoss Waterfall

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Iceland in 16 Days: Day 5, East Fjords – Bakkagerði

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Feature Image Details: Canon 16-35MM F4 L lens at 19MM, F/18, 0.3 seconds. I used a B+W Circular Polarizer to remove reflections from the rocks.

We spent our fifth night in Bakkagerði. The trip from Seydisfjordur was cloudy the entire way as was sunrise the next morning. I got up but the clouds were dense and I went back to bed for some much needed rest.

Clouds broke around noon and I took images of a stream in the East Fjords somewhere near Bakkagerði.

Arctic terns nested somewhere near that stream. They dive bombed me to let me know I was not welcome. Unlike the Jökulsárlón Arctic Tern Nesting Site where 50 or more terns might dive bomb you at once, I only had a couple to deal with at this stream.

Bakkagerði Farm

Farm Scene Details: Canon 100-400 MM F 4.5-5.6 L lens at 114MM. ISO 100, F/14, 1/160 second.

I have a love-hate relationship with polarizers. They do a wonderful job of removing glare but they also enhance unevenness in blue skies.

It took me a long time to smooth out the sky in the feature image, but the polarizer greatly enhanced the color in the rocks. People use polarizers to “enhance” skies, but I hate the effect. I am waiting for someone to come out with a “depolarizer” filter for Lightroom and Photoshop to clean up skies.

If I could do this over again, I would take a pair of images one with the polarizer and one without, then blend them in Photoshop.

Don’t just think of polarizers on sunny days. My favorite time to use polarizers is actually a cloudy day in the fall, with a stream and lots of colorful red and yellow leaves on the ground. Try it. Polarizers will do wonders for your images, especially of wet leaves.

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Up Next: North Iceland, Selfoss Waterfall

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Iceland in 16 Days: Day 4, East Fjords – Seydisfjordur – Scenic Fishing Village

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Seydisfjordur the “Prettiest East Fjord Town”

I found out about Seydisfjordur in the Eyewitness Travel Top 10 Iceland book. Its listing of 10 Charismatic towns described Seydisfjordur as follows: “Chocolate-box wooden architecture makes Seydisfjordur the prettiest East Fjord town”.

With that description, we had to go.

Image Details: Canon 24-105MM F4 L lens at 50MM, ISO 320 F/13, 0.6 seconds.

As I mentioned in my Iceland Guide I highly recommend several books and eBooks before you go.

We planned our trip starting with an eBook Forever Light: Landscape Photographers Guide to Iceland.

I also recommend

Here is set of images from Seydisfjordur.

The two interior images were taken at the Borgarholl Arts & Crafts shop. We purchased some woolen items.

The shop also served as the owners home. She was gracious to let me photograph the interior of her house.

For those shots I used my Canon 16-35MM F4 L lens, one at 24MM the other at 32MM. Exposure was about 1 second each at ISO 125.

The fishing boats leave very early in the morning and may not be back in harbor until the afternoon. I shot those images just after midnight. Lights came on just a bit later, not that they were needed. The glow in the second image is from the lights. At 1:00AM the fishermen headed out to sea.

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Up Next: East Fjords – Bakkagerði

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Iceland in 16 Days: Day 4, Folaldafoss við Öxi (Foal Waterfall)

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Feature Image Details:Canon 24-105MM F4 L lens at 47MM, ISO 100, f/14, for 1.6 seconds.

We spent our third night in Hofn after a glorious sunset/sunrise combo at the Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon.

It’s difficult to  perfectly describe what constitutes “day”. Nearly all the successful images in this trip were taken between 10:00PM and 3:00AM.

We checked into a hotel in Hofn, then ended up driving back to Jökulsárlón because one day simply was not enough at that spectacular location.

In my Iceland Guide I stated that I would have changed out Itinerary to spend another day at Jökulsárlón.

When we arrived back at Hofn, we found the door to the hotel locked. I searched around a bit for images to shoot but the skies had completely greyed up. We went back to the hotel hoping the door would be open, to no avail.

We fell asleep in the car at about 4:00AM in the morning. At 9:00AM there was a banging on door and an announcement “Sir, this is private property, you have to leave now.” I showed him our key, and the red-faced attendant apologized profusely. It turns out the attendant was cleaning as he thought everyone had checked in.

He let us in, gave us a free breakfast, a free room, and let us sleep until noon. We were off to our next stop, Seydisfjordur, a scenic fishing village in the East Fjords.

We had a choice of routes, along the coast or through the interior. We selected the interior because it faster. On the way, we stopped to photograph Folaldafoss við Öxi (Foal Waterfall).

Image Details: Canon 24-105 MM L lens at 73MM, ISO 160, f/16, for 1/10 seconds.

The second shot was taken from the road. You can get a much better image scrambling down the hill (it was not difficult or dangerous), to the base of the waterfall. The sky was grey and from below it took a while to find a vantage point with no sky in it.

I used a B+W Circular Polarizer on the feature image.

In bright light, polarizers will not be strong enough to smooth out running water. A set of neutral density filters is useful to have. I now carry a set of B&W ND Filters of strength 3.0 (10 stops), 1.8 (6 stops), and 0.6 (2 stops).

For comparison purposes, please see the image of Skógafoss in Iceland in 16 Days: Day 1-2 South Region, Skógafoss Waterfall, Reyniskirkja Church, Vik Church.

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Up Next: Seydisfjordur, a scenic fishing village in the East Fjords

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Iceland in 16 Days: Day 3-4, South Region, Jökulsárlón Lagoon Eider Ducks

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Feature Image Details: Canon 100-400 MM F 4.5-5.6 L lens at 148MM, ISO 1000, F/11, 1/800 second.

This is a pair of eider ducks at the Jökulsárlón Lagoon. Icebergs floated by, on their way out to sea, where they show up on the ice beach (see Iceland in 16 Days: Day 3-4, South Region, Jökulsárlón Ice Beach).

In contrast to arctic terns that will dive bomb you by the dozens if you get too close to their nesting site, female eider ducks will let you get within a few feet and sit there.

I approached crawling on the ground. I did not want the duck to fly, and it never came close.

For arctic tern shots, please see Iceland in 16 Days: Day 3-4, South Region, Jökulsárlón Arctic Tern Nesting Site.

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Up Next: Folaldafoss við Öxi (Foal Waterfall).

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Iceland in 16 Days: Day 3-4, South Region, Jökulsárlón Arctic Tern Nesting Site

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Shades of Alfred Hitchcock

Arctic terns do not like their nesting grounds intruded upon. If you walk near the nesting site, you will be bombarded by as many as 50 birds, swarming all around you. They will even peck at your head.

Apologies offered for failure to capture such an image. A video would have been nice.

I shot these images from our rental car. There is a road at the lagoon that goes through the nesting site.

All of the the images, including the feature image were taken with my Canon 100-400 MM F 4.5-5.6 L lens. From my car, the nesting site was right out the window. I used a focal length of about 150MM, ISO 1000. The shutter speed ranged 1/1600 to 1/2000 of a second at F/6.3.

What would I do different next time?

Other than get a video of birds pecking at my head, I would increase the ISO to 2000 or higher and set the Fstop at F/8 or F/11. I threw away many images because depth of field was insufficient or my focus was slightly off.

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Next up: Eider Ducks at the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Iceland in 16 Days: South Region, Day 3-4, Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon

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The feature image above was taken at sunrise, standing in the lagoon, with a Canon 24-105MM F4 L lens at ISO 125, F/11 at 1/100 second at 45mm.

Sunrise was a couple hours of so after sunset. It was cloudy at sunset, but the sky broke a bit at sunrise for some dramatic images.

The Jökulsárlón lagoon and ice beach is one of the world’s most magical places.

It was featured in 007 – James Bond A view to a kill (1985) and 007 – James Bond, Die another day (2002) according to the Iceland Travel Guide 8 places in Iceland you will recognize from famous movies.

These images and the ones in my prior post Iceland in 16 Days: Day 3-4, South Region, Jökulsárlón Ice Beach were taken on our second day at Jökulsárlón.

Our first day at was uneventful. The wind was blowing offshore, it was cloudy, and the water was calm.

The answers to the three questions you are most likely to ask (the same questions as yesterday) are as follows: Yes, Yes, Yes.

  1. Yes, the ice really is that blue. Glacial ice is compressed and has a different crystal structure that makes it look blue.
  2. Yes, the water is cold.
  3. Yes, I got wet (for the second consecutive day, just hours apart).

Here is a gallery of images taken at sunrise from the Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon.

I used my Canon 100-400 MM F 4.5-5.6 L lens for all of the shots except the feature image.

I did not use a graduated neutral density filter on any of these shots. Instead, I applied a digital graduated neutral density filter inside Lightroom.

The key to these shots was “be there at sunrise”. For the feature image, I also had to get wet.

We are returning in March hoping to catch the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). You cannot see them in the summer when Iceland is  never dark.

I will bring waders on the next trip. I got wet at least two more times.

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Up Next: Jökulsárlón Arctic Tern Nesting Site

Mike “Mish” Shedlock.

Iceland in 16 Days: Day 3-4, South Region, Jökulsárlón Ice Beach

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The Jökulsárlón lagoon and ice beach is one of the world’s most magical places.

It was featured in 007 – James Bond A view to a kill (1985) and 007 – James Bond, Die another day (2002) according to the Iceland Travel Guide 8 places in Iceland you will recognize from famous movies.

The answers to the three questions you are most likely to ask are as follows: Yes, Yes, Yes.

  1. Yes, the ice really is that blue. Glacial ice is compressed and has a different crystal structure that makes it look blue.
  2. Yes, the water is cold.
  3. Yes, I got wet, which is why I can properly testify to the previous question.

Feature Image Details:

Here is a set of images taken at the Jökulsárlón ice beach. Click on any image to step through the series.

These images were taken June 20. We were lucky. At that time of year, most of the ice may be gone.

All of these images were taken with a Canon 24-105MM F4 L lens at ISO 200 on an EOS 6D body. The details did not vary much, approximately 45MM, F/16, 1/8 second.

You can easily break your tripod or your leg if you get too close to this ice. I use the Manfrotto MT190CXPRO3 Carbon Fiber Tripod. For details, please see my Equipment List.

To catch the waves, snap a series of images when the water hits the ice. To get the smooth flow as captured in many of the images, snap pictures a moment after the tide flows back out.

You do need the wind at your favor. On our first day in this location, the wind was blowing offshore, there was less ice on the beach, and there were no waves at all.

If doing a circle tour of Iceland, I recommend staying two days near Jökulsárlón as noted my Iceland Guide.

The guide is packed with information about what to bring, where to go, what to do, where to stay, what to expect in each location, and what literature to read before your trip.

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Up Next: Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon

Mike “Mish” Shedlock.

Iceland in 16 Days: Day1-2 South Region, Skógafoss Waterfall, Reyniskirkja Church, Vik Church

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Welcome to MishMoments!

If you missed my first article, please see Iceland in 16 Days: Day 1, South Region, Seljalandsfoss Waterfall

Those planning a trip to Iceland will find my Iceland Guide packed with information about what to bring, where to go, what to do, where to stay, what to expect in each location, and what literature to read before your trip.

Feature Image Details: Canon 100-400 MM F 4.5-5.6 L Lens at 135MM, F/10, ISO 200 for 1/1000th second.

That’s a beautiful lens that also came in very handy for whale watching in Husavik and photographing the Arctic Tern colony at the Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon. Those images are coming up. Check out my Equipment List page for additional ideas and discussion.

The feature image above was taken from a gas station in Vik, right across from the beautiful Vik church, the morning of day 2. I was not at the gas station because I wanted to be there. Rather I was there waiting because of an experience I mentioned in my Iceland Guide.

Gasoline
Unlike in the US, gas stations can and do close early. After hours, the only way you may be able to get gas is with a prepaid card, or a credit card with both a PIN and a chip.

I was stuck the morning I took the above image because I had a credit card with a chip but no PIN, and a debit card with a PIN but no chip. When the station opened at 9:00 AM I was able to use my credit card inside, to buy a gas card to use outside. Credit or debit cards must have a chip for any use.

Buy a prepaid gas card at your first chance. Fill up often. N1 has the most stations.

Vik Church

Lupine Image Details: The image of the church and lupines was shot with a Canon 16-35MM F4 L lens at 32MM, f/14, 1/400 second ISO 200. The 16-35MM lens is my favorite general purpose lens.

Between Reykjavík  and Vik

On the first day, prior to arriving in Vik, I photographed Skógafoss Waterfall, the Reyniskirkja Church and the Seljalandsfoss Waterfall shown in my first article.

Skógafoss

Image details: Canon 16-35MM L lens at 16MM 1/160 second.

I always ask “what could I have done better?” In this case I was a bit late in the day, about 6:30 PM. The left side of the scene was in a strong shadow, but I was able to bring out much of that detail in Lightroom.

I like like water to be silky smooth, and the above image does not qualify. Polarizers can help, but you have to be careful in how they are rotated or they will obliterate the rainbow. A better choice would have been a neutral density filter. I now carry B+W ND Filters of strength 3.0 (10 stops), 1.8 (6 stops), and 0.6 (2 stops). Six stops would have changed the exposure to about 1 second. That would have given me the effect I wanted.

Reyniskirkja Church

Image details:  Canon 16-35 MM L lens at 25 MM, f/13, ISO 100

The Reyniskirkja Church, built in 1929, is located very close to Vik. I cannot take credit for the beautiful clouds. They were in place when we arrived.

My camera was pointed slightly up which made the flag pole look tilted to the right. I corrected the perspective in Lightroom. A 24mm Tilt-Shift Lens would have eliminated the need to make that perspective adjustment.

If you are eyeing a Canon T/S lens, I would strongly recommend the newer 17MM Tilt-Shift Lens over the 24MM lens. I have a shot from Reykjavík on the last day of our trip that will show why.

bh-filters

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Up Next: Jökulsárlón Ice Beach

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Iceland in 16 Days: Day 1, South Region, Seljalandsfoss Waterfall

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Welcome to Mish Moments!

Please visit my About Page for my background, guest submissions, and information about the focus of this website.

I kick off Mish Moments with a series of articles on Iceland. In the summer of 2015 my wife Liz and I had a glorious trip. We spent 15 nights (16 days) on the island.

We will take you around Iceland, and the amazing trip we had with scenes of waterfalls, ice beaches, puffins, whales, geysers, rainbows, glaciers, and colorful fishing boats in small harbor villages.

My free Iceland Guide is packed with information about what to bring, where to go, what to do, where to stay, what to expect in each location, and what literature to read before your trip.

Feature Image Details: Canon 16-35MM F4 L Lens at 22MM, F/14, ISO 100 for 1/13 second. This is my favorite general purpose lens. Check out my Equipment List page for additional ideas and discussion.

Iceland Day One

We arrived in Reykjavik at 6:00AM. It was cold and rainy. We could not get our Garmin to work. I feared the entire trip might be the same.  Such fears were soon dashed. Once outside of Reykjavik, the weather turned, the sun came out, and we were on our way.

I had a bad case of jet lag, not getting any sleep on the Icelandair flight from Boston.  Seriously tired, we pulled into the Hotel Ranga for breakfast, between Reykjavik and Vik, with Vik being our first night’s stop.

The operators were extremely generous. They saw me half-asleep on one of their benches and said we could lie down for a while in their beautiful upstairs sitting room.

After a few hours nap and an excellent buffet breakfast, we were on our way to Vik.

We passed two major waterfalls along the way. Seljalandsfoss, shown here, was the second. Skógafoss was first, but I will comment on Skógafoss in a collection of images between Reykjavik and Vik.

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall

 

Best Angles

There are two very nice vantage points for photographing Seljalandsfoss. The first behind the waterfall. The second is high up the hillside parallel or slightly above the waterfall. Down below, where most people were, is an inferior location.

Depending on wind direction, it may not be possible to photograph from behind the waterfall. As it was, I was wiping off the front of my lens after every shot. Spray is a huge problem even if the wind is not blowing at you. Most of those behind the waterfall gave up.

Get a box of lens-cleaning wipes. I nearly used an entire box when photographing waterfalls in Iceland.

Contrast

There is a huge variation in light in the sky and light on the cliff behind the waterfall. There are several ways of dealing with contrast.

  1. Expose for the highlights and let the shadow areas go black
  2. Take multiple exposures and blend them with an HDR (High Dynamic Range) program
  3. Take multiple exposures and manually blend them yourself in Photoshop
  4. Take a single exposure pushing the exposure as high as you can without blowing out the highlights, and working as best you can with a single image

The feature image at the top uses method 3. The image above uses method 4.

I tried using Lightroom’s HDR merge program but the results were not acceptable. Part of the problem was my own doing. I did not capture the shadow exposures correct. The result was purple-green in shadow areas. I did better blending multiple exposures of the scene myself, using Photoshop.

Words of Thanks

  • To my beautiful wife and best friend Liz, with whom we have shared many special moments traveling the United States, Europe, and Iceland.
  • To all our friends and the many people we met on our many travels
  • To the folks at WordPress for spending countless hours tweaking this layout until I was finally convinced I had it correct.

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Up Next: In and around Vik

Mike “Mish” Shedlock