The last few days have been so full on that I have barely had a chance to enter anything. Some bad weather did set in so we had time to edit our photos and play around in lightroom. Stuart said I would be converted to it by the end and I must admit that I am. There are a couple of things it doesn't do so I will still use my Smart Photo Editor for that.
Sifting through all my images to find the best was quite hard, not because I have a lot of brilliant photos but because I never really like a lot of the photos I take. We were told to be ruthless in getting rid of the duds, I had to be careful not to get rid of ones that were good. There were ones I thought were rubbish and boring that others really liked so that in itself was a real learning curve for me. I really struggle a lot with saying that something I have done is good.
Ok so lets really get started with the reason for this blog entry. April 2. From memory it snowed a lot over night. We headed back to the ice beach, and I totally forgot that my camera ISO was still set for night time. The photos I took turned out ok but they were very grainy. I managed to clear some up in lightroom thank goodness. The lighting however was brilliant. The sun was hidden by dark snow clouds and the snow just came out beautifully. In the afternoon the others went out again. I can't remember where but I really wanted to get to work on some of the photos I had already taken.
I also went for a walk around the place we were staying. It is a farm as well and I went down to see the horses. They were very accommodating when it cam to photos. Of course they wanted to each my camera strap and jacket. Must be an Icelandic horse thing. While I was there the snow started to fall heavily so I got some good shots of the horses with snow falling. A couple of Snow Bunting birds (I think that is their name) came and sat on a post for me as well. It was great. When the snow got real heavy I headed back to my room and did some editing. I found out later that I probably had a better afternoon photography wise than those that went out.
I got so engrossed in editing (even after dinner) that I ended up staying up until 1 am. It was too cloudy Aurora watch.
April 3, The snow had gone where we were staying and everything was turning to slush. Yes that is my finger in the frame. It was a rushed phone shot ok!
Our first stop was another glacier but finding the small road that went up beside someones farm proved difficult. This photo is an attempt at staying on where they think the road is.
This photo proves that I am not Stuarts bad luck charm because he found the hole without me being in there. :) Everyone jumped out of the van (just in case) and then jumped around in the snow looking for the road. they were all jumping on grass so the road could not be found and it was decided that we would not risk going any further.
This is Stuart doing an impression of a famous celebrity who doesn't want their photo taken. By the way he managed to back out without a tow rope this time.
This was the view off to the side. Camera phone does not do it justice.
Our next stop was this old farm house. OMG I could have stayed there all day. there is so much to photograph around this building. There are no windows so you can see inside. The colourful paint is peeling, the pipes are all rusty and there is still an old stove in one of the rooms.
The road to the house was quite long and this is the view all the way along it. We stopped here for lunch. Again I could have stayed forever here.
It is time now to talk about Paul (our other pro guide). He was driving the nice comfortable 4WD which I now sat in. He seemed to have a habit of parking where it was difficult for someone in the front passenger seat to actually get out. I have stepped onto ice, into water puddles, and knee deep in snow but stopping for the reindeer was his best achievement so far. The side of the road was steep, very steep, but there was a small side road he could have used but he chose not to (probably because it was private). Well I step out carefully and end up with my waist level to bottom of the 4WD. The next step was just as bad and even though I was being careful I bent my knee backwards. It is ok as long as I don't go down slippery slopes putting pressure on it.
The next stop was a hot drink break. I loved this sign above the toilet. One of our mob was not feeling well here so it was decided that the 4WD would go back to the hotel. I volunteered to go as well. We were doing our photo show that night and I still hadn't chosen which photos. Also I had had a small accident with my waterproof pants and they had torn from just below the elastic around the waist down to the crutch almost. I needed them to last at least one more day.
Back at the hotel I played a bit more in lightroom and that night we all shared 3 of our photos that we liked the most. We also shared another three from the old farm house we went to a couple of days before. Paul set us a challenge to do 3 photos: a wide shot, a medium, and a close up of the farm showing its age etc. I did the old church on the property. These photos will be going up on the Wild Photography Holidays Facebook Page.
Finally to April 4. Got up really early for a sunrise on the ice beach. It was great. I even met some other pro photographers from Perth. After breakfast it was rain, rain and more rain. We were driving back to Reykjavik and it stopped and let the sun out for us to get photographs of gorgeous spongy moss on a really old lava flow. This is where my wet weather pants gave up the fight and tore down one leg.
On the roads here they tell you what the temp is as well as the wind speed. We went through an area where the wind speed was 30 meters per second. Yes it was howling.
We had our final meal together and said our goodbyes. I am the last to leave which also means I need to go now as my check out is in 20 minutes.
1 comment:
I hope you post more of your photos on your blog or facebook.
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