Soft Water, Soft Light, Softly Approaching Goðafoss
There are thousands upon thousands of waterfalls in Iceland, from trickling runnels to thundering rents in the earth.
My longstanding dream of circumnavigating the Icelandic ring road had stops to climb into and around what felt like hundreds of those falls as I drove wild and free all over the country. In shoulder season, most of the cascades are tempered... there's enough drizzling rain to swell them, but not to the explosive levels the glacial melt runoff of the summers bring. Somewhere around the fifth day on the road, I came to Goðafoss — the waterfall of the gods. The expansive, roaring ringed wall of water is one of the largest in the county, and the sound and river approach to the falls was much different to many of the hikes I'd taken previously. Here, the water was turbulent, driven by the wind and the immense pressure of the falls, and the hike along the river was wild and frightening with a presence that many of the others hadn't possessed. Small drops and heavy rapids led for kilometers towards the main bowl of the falls.
Stinging mist swirled on wind currents, and the surface of the water shifted in hue, over hidden rocks, and sporadically with the will of the gusts.
Picking my way through areas where the water was only ankle high but swift enough to pull me off my feet, I marveled at the kaleidoscopic effect. (And also that there was a path with a bridge right above me that I totally missed.) I wanted to take those colors and sinuous curves and smooth them out into something that matched the soft glow of the filtered grey light, so I did my best to prop myself and my tripod up in the wind and long expose the turbulence. These are some of the only long exposures from my entire trip, since I lost my neutral density filter almost falling to my death further along the ring road. (If you want to read my real-time travel logs from the journey, you can find them here and work backwards.)
Something about the way they turned out really speaks to me, especially since they present the area so dramatically differently from what you would perceive standing there on the edge of the roiling foam.
Contrasting these smooth, glowing shots with the ones of the unsoftened water, frozen in violent motion, are very different perspectives on the same beauty.
Continuing up the cut widened by the power of the river, I kept an eye out for a way to climb up the cliffs to find the waterfall powering these images. I promise, when we get there, it's going to be worth it.
These photos and words are my own work, inspired by travels all over this pretty blue marble of ours. I hope you like them. 🌶️
Such a well written piece - this is really a good example of travel writing! Your personal interaction with the landscape is lovely. I like the collage you made, which captures some of the essence, colour and mood of what you were trying to pin down.
Thank you so much! When I first got to steem, I had this desire to grab people and put them where I was... So I rarely show me or people in these posts. I always hope to describe things as they happened and pair it with views to allow someone to feel more like it was their experience and memory as much as mine. I'm hoping to be able to use up and coming tech like Dlux to start building more immersive experiences! I have a lot less time now with witnessing and steem community, but I'm not going to let these little adventures go entirely...
These photos look like they were taken on a different planet :) The landscapes is rough - just stones and water. It's impressive. It must be a pleasure and a photographer dream to stand there and take photos. In some cases even risk their life (like you did :))
My favorite would be the last one. Water is crystal clear and I'm sure you can even drink it without getting poisoned :)
Thank you for sharing and have a great day!
Thank you! you're exactly right... In my travel log, I mention how bizarre the island is. The rocks that are everywhere often look like a moonscape or a frozen bed of seaweed or something like that. It's different than many places I've been so far in a really intriguing way, even other islands. It might be one of the most beautiful places on this planet I've been so far, though~
God damn. These photos are making me absolutely moist.
I did a giggle spit take. Now, I too am moist.
Hell yeah. Moisty boys and girls all up in this bitch. I don't fuck with people who are dry, that shit is icky and gross, dood.
ded
Man I swear, you take some of the most beautiful photo's I have ever seen. These are just so inspiring!
Thank you! I still feel a bit like 'jack of all trades, master of none,' but this is initially what drew me to steem in the first place. I just want to take people on trips all over the planet to places they might not get to see otherwise.
Awesome shots @crimsonclad! I’d love to visit Iceland someday soon
Posted using Partiko iOS
Thank you! Eventually I'm going to have to replace that poor filter. As for Iceland, I'll tell anyone who asks... I'd go back in a heartbeat (I do hope to) but go in shoulder season! It's so worth it, even though most guides suggest summer.
!dramatoken
Hahaha 😁
You've got
DRAMA!To view or trade
DRAMAgo to steem-engine.com.Goddamn woman, the place is incredible gorgeous and your photos are able to make it even better! How u you get that effect of smooth water? Is it by leaving the shutter open more time?
Thank you, and basically, yes! A few seconds and you get the long water streaks like that. I used a neutral density filter, which is like a black sheet of glass that fits over your lens. It helps you to not blow out your images by over exposing them when the shutter is open a long time, and also to even out the light off of things that reflect it too brightly, like water or broad light surfaces.
I bought it specifically for Iceland, to learn how to use it, and then almost immediately lost it a day or so after taking these because I tripped and fell and nearly ended up going over a cliff myself. These are some of the only long water shots I took in a country FULL of water, lol. Someday I'll get another, but it traumatised me a little bit. Thanks 🖤
This is like erotic photography:
The river is wet.
The rock is really hard.
The girl with the camera posts the photos online to earn money.
Are you trying to get a rise out of me? At yeast you kept it suggestive and not downright crusty.
awkward silence
crickets
bread puns
Well I can see you're all buttered up and ready. I could say something cheesy on top of this, but I ham going to leave it be.
That is some awesome and rough terrain!
Let's just gloss over the fact that if I had gone about thirty feet over from where I started picking my way down into the canyon, there would have been a smooth, easy walking path to take 😂 x
Never the easy way, right? LOL
Nice pictures!!
Thanks 🖤 Someday I'll replace the filter and we'll see if it was just a one off 😅