Iceland, July 2013

Lake Þingvallavatn

The largest lake in Iceland is located in Þingvellir National Park. The first sun of the trip was giving us some tantalizing glimpses of itself, and highlighted the lake surface in this 2 frame pano shot.

Gullfoss

The Gullfoss waterfall is an impressive sight, even in less than perfect weather. We had a few fleeting moments of weak sun while we were here; one of them bringing out a faint rainbow above the lower falls. It is hard to grasp the amount of water that is pouring over the 2 drops and into the narrow ravine, but the spray that hits you as you walk out to the far viewing area gives you a good idea. It was a challenge to keep the camera gear dry under those conditions, but worth the trouble to experience the falls from so close up.

Gullfoss #2

Another view of the falls as we started our walk down the path towards the closer viewing area. The mist from the falls keeps everything very green.

Gullfoss - Up Close

An amazing amount of water drops off the last cliff and into a narrow chasm. The mist reduces the contrast and makes it hard to keep my filter dry long enough to take a picture, but the view is breathtaking. The noise is a bit impressive too!

Microcosm

t's easy to miss all the complexity and beauty going on on a small scale with so many impressive vistas to gawk at, but even the ground under your feet has lots going on in Iceland. I particularly liked the combination of the fist-sized chunk of volcanic rock lying in the middle of an otherwise peaceful looking flowering tundra-scape.

Gateway To Skaftafell National Park

The famous ring road turns and heads directly into the Skaftafell National Park and directly towards 2 of the glaciers that come down off of the massive Vatnajökull icecap. It is an awesome sight!

Jökulsárlón Bird Frenzy

Amidst the icebergs Arctic Terns swoop and dive into the freezing water after food.

Ancient Ice

The remains of a chunk of glacier ice creates waves on the black sand beach near Jökulsárlón. Much of the ice released by the glacier is over 1,000 years old. This small piece was likely once part of a much larger iceberg.

Icelandic Countryside

When the sun came out, the scenery was truly special. The contrast of the green hills with the large glacial icefields were breathtaking.

Svínafellsjökull Glacier

This is a 3 frame pano of one of the large glaciers coming off of the Vatnajökull icecap.

Reynisfjara Vista

The black sands of Reynisfjara sweep around towards the Reynisdrangar Sea Stacks.

Reynisdrangar Sentinels

Some of the more photographed seastacks near Vík í Mýrdal on the southern coast of Iceland still make a tantalizing target for shooting. We managed to get there just as the sun was setting (around 10 pm local time!)

Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach

Claudia is a tiny orange splash of color as she takes in the Reynisdrangar Sea Stacks along this famous back sand beach near Vik.

Skógafoss Rainbow

We got to Skógafoss the night before this shot was taken but we were tired, it was getting dark, and the weather was poor. Coming back the next day on our drive back to the airport proved to be a great decision as the better lighting provided both a bright blue sky and a rainbow to highlight this already impressive sight.

Waterfalls Everywhere

On our drive back to the airport on our last day we still saw many smaller waterfalls. There are seemingly and endless number of smaller falls that are visible when looking towards the interior glacial plan from the Ring Road. The sun and the bright blue sky really accentuated the unbelievable green color that was in abundance.