Kirkjufell was my first location in this year's Iceland trip after I arrived in Reykjavik around midday. I made the drive to the location rather reluctant as I had been to this location before and had quite already some satisfying images in my portfolio of this iconic mountain. However, it was my first evening in Iceland and I was somewhat exhausted to search for other locations and the weather forecast for sunset was miserable for the whole island except the Snæfellsnes peninsula. My strategy for this year's Iceland trip was to completely follow the weather and not any pre-planned itinerary, even if this meant a lot of driving. I arrived at Kirkjufell with plenty of time, so I could even splurge on a $45 meal at the local restaurant. The light that then developed during sunset was one of the best I have ever witnessed, it just wouldn't stop, which allowed me to explore all sorts of possible compositions (good and bad ones!) along the waterfall. The place unfortunately turned to a 'zoo' later on with lots of photographers and workshop groups arriving incl. the local farmer who rightly got upset. I learned then for the first time that apparently this waterfall is actually on her private property. Nevertheless, I was very happy with this first night in Iceland and to top off my day I spotted my long-time friend Raymond in the crowd and we continued to take images at a different location until 4am in the morning.
A Triptych series of abstract images of the Upper Yosemite Waterfall. I was intrigued by the dynamic water movement of this waterfall. I was fascinating to watch and experience.
This was my second visit to the Stokksnes area in Iceland - in 2016 I had been there for 2 days and never saw the Vestrahorn mountain, so when I returned in 2017, I was eager to finally see it. I had put a lot of trust into the Iceland meteorology service when I started my 6 hours drive from Northern Iceland since they had forecast a wonderful sunrise for this location. When I arrived late the previous evening, Vestrahorn was all shrouded in clouds. I met a really nice Dutch photographer, Corné van Oosterhout (check out his kingfisher photography!!), who had been there for several days waiting for the weather to clear up. Ever when we thought the clouds would start disappear, they didn't - apparently the clouds just swirl around the mountain to return again. At 3am - as forecasted - the clouds started slowly to clear. Corne was vast asleep in this car, but I managed to wake him so he wouldn't miss this sunrise. I was frantically running around to find a good composition, in the end being not really happy with anything I composed. Now half a year later when revisiting the images, I feel different and really love the mood of this frame.
