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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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.
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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The answers to the three questions you are most likely to ask are as follows: Yes, Yes, Yes.
Yes, the ice really is that blue. Glacial ice is compressed and has a different crystal structure that makes it look blue.
Yes, the water is cold.
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.
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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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.
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.
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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.
Expose for the highlights and let the shadow areas go black
Take multiple exposures and blend them with an HDR (High Dynamic Range) program
Take multiple exposures and manually blend them yourself in Photoshop
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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