Day 7 – Iceland Trip 2014
Yet another early start, we had to be on the bus and off for 7:45 am. I wasn't bothered as we were going to be re-visiting some of the locations we had visited last year.
First stop was Geysir, we wanted to get there before the morauding crowds of tourists arrived. I was frustrated with my images from Geysir last year. I was so in awe of the spectacle in front of the camera, that I didn't notice the background of the images (basically it looked like a geyser sitting in front of a housing estate). This year I was determined to do it right.....
The sheer force of this piece of nature is unbelievable.
Second stop of the day was Gullfoss. A large waterfall. We visited this place last year. Fortunately last year it wasn't too windy, this year .... flipping heck it was cold. The wind was so strong at times, that the tripods had to be ditched for the fear of the camera being blown over.
Gullfoss
Gullfoss
Gullfoss
From Gullfoss we moved across to þingvellir national park.
Gullfoss
þingvellir
þingvellir
þingvellir
þingvellir
þingvellir
When we visited this location last year, one of our entourage decided to reveal just a bit more of a crack than what was already evident in þingvellir. Dave was high off the copious amounts of skittles he had consumed. Welshot monkey who is now known as 'Spank', decided to pay homage to Dave and recreate the fateful day Julie Steele got more than an eyeful (Scarred for life!!)
Welshot monkey pays homage to Dave Handley at þingvellir
Another early start tomorrow, so only a short update today.
Day 5 – Iceland Trip 2014
We ventured out to the Snaefellsnes peninsular. This was a popular activity on last years trip, most notably due to the most amazing Aurora show that greeted us on our final night in Iceland for 2013. With this in our minds we looked forward to returning this year.
It was an early start, and a very long drive. Lee very kindly gave me the task of looking after Welshot monkey (and a little later Welshot Man). She wanted me to blog about these shots today.
We started our photography for the day in a Lava field, but not before our trusted guide Ymir treated us all to an Icelandic delicacy of fermented shark meat and a shot of Brennivin (Icelandic Vodka). I tried the shark meat last year so I kind of knew what to expect. Ymir gave me a piece which also had a softer piece attached. My word it was rank, the taste of ammonia hit the back of my throat and the softer piece erupted (it must have been roe or something similar) as this most awful taste hit my mouth and I almost gagged. Suffice to say I took a swig of Brennivin to wash away the taste.
Lava field, Snaefellsnes
So after the tasting, I got to work with Welshot monkey. Knowing only too well what I was like, Lee must have thought Welshot monkey would come to no harm, how wrong she was!!
First I let Welshot monkey have a nice picture.....
Welshot Monkey in a Lava Field
Then Welshot monkey started to play up a bit when he saw the snow, the little beggar ran off and started sliding down miniature ice flows.....
Welshot Monkey sliding down the Snow / Ice drifts
He then spotted the Brennivin and must have taken a few swigs whilst nobody was watching....
Welshot Monkey steals the Brennivin
He must have drank quite a bit as the next time we saw him he'd fallen into a snow hole.....
Welshot monkey falls into a snow hole
Once released, the little beggar ran off again and started to climb some of the trickier boulders.....
Welshot monkey climbs the rocks
He eventually began to slow down after all his shenanigans......
Chilling out in the Lava rock
After which a tired little Welshot monkey went to sleep between the photography bags....
ZZZZzzzzzzz
After the Lava field, we went for lunch at a Horse farm.....
Horse Farm
Welshot monkey tried his hand at driving a tractor....
Welshot Monkey tries to steal the tractor
Checking his mirror
Whilst Monkey had beggared off, I had a wander around the farm and took a few shots....
Horse farm
Horse Farm
From the Horse farm we travelled to the small port of Arnarstapavegur....
Arnarstapevegur
Welshot monkey did a spot of sunbathing....
Sunbathing monkey
Welshot Monkey in Arnarstapevegur
Welshot Man at Arnarstapevegur
From here we ventured back to the 'Energy beach' at Djúpalón...
Trawler wreckage at Djúpalón
That was that for Day 5. When we got back to the horse farm, we were asked if some of us would like to go to the festival that was happening that night. Five of us decided to stay, suffice to say we got very drunk. I thought I had lost Welshot Man and didn't want to tell Lee. Turns out we never had him anyway !!
The rest of the group sensibly went back to the hotel, they stopped off though as a spectacular Aurora display turned out. Which was excellent really as it was Rachel and Alan's last night, so that must have made their trip.
The five (Richie, Danni, Rob, James and myself) who stayed on at the farm watched the aurora on our backs in one of the fields at the farm. Once it was over we attended the festival and got very merry on yet more Brennivin and Red Wine. Our heads really did hurt in the morning!!
Day 4 – Iceland Trip 2014
Its very late, after 1am and we have to be up and ready by 9:15 tomorrow, so I'll keep it short.
Now before you have a go, I know I said I would do a Day 3.5 update. Today disaster struck one of my memory cards. I haven't lost any images, they are backed up - but I have lost access to them temporarily (well until I get a CF card reader). So I'll have to do a 3.5 update when we have returned.
Again due to the above, I can't show any images from the first stop of our day today at Urridafoss. I'll include these in the 3.5 update.
Our second stop is where my memory card actually failed. We re-visited Skógafoss, one of the more famous waterfalls in Iceland. Luckily I took a picture for Facebook, so I'll put it in here.....
Skógafoss
Third stop was a visit to the plane wreckage at Sólheimasandur.....
Dakota plane wreckage, Sólheimasandur
It's a surreal experience really. You can't help thinking that someone must have lost their lives in this wreckage, but apparently not. All the crew survived and lived to tell the tale.
Inside the Dakota wreckage, with Welshot Man!
Fourth stop of the day was at Vik, a beach town. Very busy place, as were most places we visited today - damn kids holidays!!
The black sand at Vik, looking out towards the sea stacks
Fifth stop was Dyrhólaey, just round the corner from Vik. In the photos above and below, you see both sides of the headland between the two locations.
Looking back towards Vik, Dyrhólaey
We waited for sunset here and experienced the most amazing sight as the Sun slowly sank beneath the horizon. Some of the waves reaching the shoreline were lit up by the orangey/red colour of the setting sun.....
Water on fire, Dyrhólaey
Finally we went back to a location which we were lucky enough to visit last year, Seljalandsfoss. One of Iceland's most iconic waterfalls. The difference this time, it was at night....
Seljalandsfoss by night
We eventually reached our hotels at around 00:10am, after being out since 7:45-ish.
Another long day tomorrow, Snæfellsnes is on the cards. Last year when we visited we had the most spectacular Aurora show, so fingers crossed tomorrow is THE day for the light show!!
Off to bed now!!
Day 3 – Iceland Trip 2014 – Monster Truck outing
I promise to update this as soon as possible, but I did the typically un-Welshot thing of forgetting to take out the right memory card out of my camera which my laptop will accept!! So expect a Day 3.5 update before the Day 4 one tomorrow!! (it'll be a late night tomorrow anyway as we have all been warned by Lee to expect so!)
We set off today from the base camp in these massive trucks, like a Range Rover Vogue but on steroids. Lee has already posted pics of the day, so I'll leave mine until the 3.5 update. Typically though, Lee arranged our group, which consisted of Joan & Ted, Rachel, James, Richie, Lee and myself to be in one truck, the others in the other truck........... Guess whose truck started making funny noises and then proceeded to bank into a 3 foot (plus) hole in the ice! Yep, OURS !!
The Ice Hole !
Luckily our trusted driver Ágúst knew what to do ! He arranged a replacement vehicle and got us out of the pit.
Taken whilst waiting for the Truck to get out of the hole
Its been another fantastic outing today. All the Welshot crew were in their element - We visited Geo-thermal steam vents, Geo-thermal power plant (for Tea, Coffee and beer for me - I am on my holidays!), Off road snow driving and finally a visit to the beach !! The beach was a typically Volcanic beach with black sand - people really had a go at me when I described Iceland as being like Tenerife but colder - I think its actually fair to say Iceland is really like Tenerife, its an Island, its volcanic, its got a volcano, its got black sand, it has the same time line as Britain, and you can still get a tan! (although here its caused by the wind and snow). The one thing Iceland hasn't got (and in my opinion) in its favour, are all the typical Brit bars and dirty cheap beer. The National beer here is Gull and it knocks spots off Dorada! - I should know I drank enough of both in my time!!
I'll do a 3.5 update tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have some Aurora pictures tomorrow for Day 4 update as we're off to the South shore. We have decided to stay out late if its favourable for an Aurora show.
Fingers crossed.
Apologies for the lack of pics today .... I will remedy this tomorrow!
Day 2 – Iceland Trip 2014 – 19th February 2014
I think Lee Iggulden (our trustee Welshot leader!!) summed it up when she posted on Facebook, "absolutely shattered dot com" - To be fair I would have put it a lot stronger than that. Iceland is one of those places that you just never know what kind of weather is around the corner. Yes, its cold, probably colder than we experienced last year, but at least this time it has been dry (-ish).
The complicated system of micro climates adds to the mystery of this beautiful island, you could be in perfect dry (yet cold) weather only to turn a corner and a full scale tornado hits you right in the face. Today was one of those days.
We ventured off to the Whale Fjords today. Its just about 1/2 hour out of Reykjavik, but its a hidden gem now due mainly to the construction of the road tunnel which saves motorists the 3-4 hour round trip journey. This area is a photographers dream with an abundance of Water, Abandoned Farms, Abandoned Factories, Waterfalls, Wildlife, Changing skies, Changing weather (OMG!) and loads of Ice.
You'll have to forgive me for the lack of place names in this post, but the wind was that strong the map blew out of my coat pocket and fell to the mercy of Thor - well the Whale Fjord anyway and there was no way I was risking falling on my backside when it flew across a frozen river and lodged on one of the rocks in the middle!! I'd already done a not so brilliant impersonation of Robin Cousins slipping on thick ice and falling on my backside.
First stop was Laxa i Kjos ....
Frozen river at Laxa i Kjos
Eifion was really impressed that I actually used my Lee graduated filters, the image above is out of camera with not one bit of Photoshop wizardry.
Stop 2, Frozen Waterfall - Hvalfjarðarvegur region gps co-ordinates 64.353039,-21.451991.....
Frozen Waterfall, Hvalfjarðarvegur region
Stop 3 was Lunch and hunger had hit in so no photos taken (sorry)
Stop 4, Abandoned Whale processing Factory (?). This would have been a photographers dream if it wasn't for the hammering wind which seemed to appear from nowhere. At this point, the tripod was ditched and I went hand held. The force of the wind was so strong that it actually blew my fully laden camera bag across the ground, thankfully it was completely zipped up.
Abandoned Whale Processing Plant
Rachel gets battered by the wind and almost blown back across the beach
Whale Bone (?) on the beach
Whaling Ships
When we left the Whaling area, the wind had become so strong it was very difficult to walk or stand up in it. I'd almost abandoned the idea of leaving the tour bus again as it looked like we weren't going to get the sunset we had been waiting for. Thor must have listened to us though and worked his magic as the setting sun cast a warm glow over the fjord.....
Final Pic of the day
However Thor sorted the clouds but ignored the wind, he left that in place with full force. The above pic was all I could manage to take (its very soft in some areas of the image).
Come on Thor, sort your magic out again for tomorrow ...... but this time make all of the nastiness for photographers go away!! (...and if you could switch on the Northern Lights for us we'd be eternally grateful!!)
Iceland – Day 1 – 18th February 2014
We arrived safe and well in Reykjavik this morning, but after an early start for a lot of the Welshot crew we didn't really feel like jumping straight into a full on photography session.
We left the first Photography outing until about 4pm when the Welshot group gathered at the Hot Dog kiosk, "Bæjarins beztu". After a few members sampled the wares, we proceeded along the waterfront to the Sun Voyager, viking ship sculpture.
The Sun Voyager, Reykjavik Waterfront.
It was bitterly cold today on the waterfront and soon the decision was made to head off to a local hostelry for refreshments (Beer). We'd just got settled to watch the Man City v Barcelona match when we had a tip off (thanks Kris Williams) that the Aurora was out there. I went and popped my head outside and sure enough there was a faint hint of green light in the sky. We ventured to the waterfront again to the Sun Voyager sculpture.
The Sun Voyager at night, with Aurora Borealis.
We were later told that the column of light that intersected the Aurora Borealis was an art installation by Yoko Ono as a tribute to John Lennon, I think we were told it was called the Peace Light.
Aurora Borealis and The Peace Light
So not a bad first night really. A few of the group will be kicking themselves for not venturing out, but it was bitterly cold and it had been a very long day.
Iceland, February 2013
In February I was very lucky to take part of the first Welshot Imaging Iceland "Experience". Welshot really wanted to call the trip "The Northern Lights" experience but didn't want to upset attendees in case the weather was too bad or overcast that we saw nothing of the Aurora. Well, Lee Iggulden (one of the Welshot Directors) needn't have worried, what we saw and experienced probably couldn't have been beaten and provided us with unforgettable memories and friendships.
Lee had really done her homework with regards to hiring the best private tour guide, Ýmir Björgvin Arthúrsson and selecting team leaders from Welshot who would simply make the whole trip thoroughly memorable, in particular Richard Roberts. With their guidance and perseverance, all attendees had a fantastic experience. I'll not blab on here about the whole trip, I'll leave that to a fellow attendee, John Evans who wrote a fantastic entry on the Welshot Imaging blog:
http://www.welshotimaging.co.uk/blog/2013/03/12-go-mad-in-iceland/
The images I took have taken a while to process, some of them may be re-visited in the future and re-posted, but a selection of the images have been uploaded to both my gallery site and Flickr pages.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/padster1970/sets/72157633087693968/
Funnily enough, my favourite image of the whole trip wasn't the Northern Lights, thats not to say they weren't fantastic. It was this shot taken on the last day which brings a smile to my face each time I view it....
A poignant and fitting end to the trip, and truly a place for contemplation and reflection. Djúpalónssandur beach is the site where the British Trawler "Epine" was shipwrecked in 1948. The bits of the boat have been left as a reminder and natural monument to those who lost their lives.
Thanks Lee, Eifion, Richie and Ymir it truly will be a trip I will always remember with great memories!!
