10%

Iceland

Three Days in Thingvellir

By Ash Furrow

December 28^th, 2014

Arriving

My wife, Ashley, and I arrived in Iceland on separate flights. She got there first and had already picked up my luggage. We punched in the address on the GPS of our rental car and headed for our cabin near Thingvellir Park at 6:30am. We had a two-hour drive to get there and the sun would not rise for another five hours.

Day One

After settling in, we set out for some supplies – mainly coffee. We were exhausted and un-caffeinated, but in high spirits. We left the cabin an hour before sunrise, but there was already enough light to take hand-held photos. The snow that had fallen the night before was already starting to melt.

I was worried about being able to capture the full range of light in this sunrise. Even though the sun was still below the horizon – not to mention behind a mountain – shooting into bright sources of light with dim surroundings is usually a bad idea. In another life, I would have set up a tripod to make three identical photos at different exposures and use HDR software on my computer to get one final image.

Luckily, I brought a lot of film. Beyond a unmatched aesthetic quality, film photographs also exhibit a very high dynamic range – that means that they’re able to show details in both highlights and shadows at the same time. The majority of the photos I would take on our trip would be shot on different types of film: Portra, Ektar, TMax, and more.

Our cabin sat on the lake Thingvallavatn – the largest natural lake in Iceland. We were two hours away from Reykjavik and did not pass many towns on the way here. I think that this area is a popular place to have a cottage for the summer. But it was winter, and no one else was around.

We couldn’t see it beneath the snow, but the landscape of Iceland is made up of many, many rocks that are covered by a thick carpet of moss. Since its settlement in the ninth century, Iceland’s tree population has dwindled as it has been used to keep settlers warm. There is an Iceland joke that goes “What do you do if you get lost in an Icelandic forrest? Stand up.”

The light at this time of day was magical. “Golden Hour” is a term used by photographers to describe the perfect times of day to take outdoor photos – at sunrise and sunset. Usually this window of time lasts only an hour or so, but here, it lasted nearly two full hours.

We drove to a nearby village to get supplies. We needed coffee and food. The large tourist rest stop was closed, but a small gas station slash grocery store was open. We also checked out the waterfront while we were there – it was fairly cold and windy.

Iceland is an island in the North Atlantic ocean that has been formed by volcanic ash – a result of the separating tectonic plates of Europe and North America. Iceland has taken advantage of their unique geography to harness geothermal energy from the ground beneath them for electricity, as well as spas and bath houses.

Write your story here. (Optional)

Since the earth in Iceland is formed from volcanic ash and rock, the sand on its beaches is very dark – nearly black.

After getting supplies, we returned to the cabin and slept all day. We woke up after sunset, but the nap was well worth missing a golden hour. It was 3º and raining, but not too harshly.

But just because the sun had set did not mean that we couldn’t make photos. It was only 6:00pm and I had brought my tripod. We had hoped to see the Aurora Borealis, but the sky would remain cloudy throughout our trip. Nevertheless, we drove down the road a ways and got some photos of the remaining light from the sun. These next two photos have exposure times of about a minute.

While I prefer to shoot on film, I don’t avoid digital when it is prudent to use it. Long exposures at night are a product of trial and error – seeing the results immediately on the back of a digital camera helps you hone in a perfect exposure.

Day Two

The next morning, we set out after sunrise. We didn’t have any expectations for Iceland, but there was one landmark that we needed to see. It was 120km away, but the journey would take all day: stopping periodically to make some photos chews up a lot of time!

We started our morning at a site that we had flagged the night before in the dark. I took some photos on film, and then grabbed my digital camera. It wouldn’t turn on. We took lots of photos on film before running back to the cabin. Figuring some water from the night before had gotten into the camera, we threw the camera in a bag with some rice to help dry it out. In an hour, it was fine.

Even though I was shooting on film, I had some fun with capturing the waves at different shutter speeds. I think the whole “two minute exposure so that water looks like mist” look is overdone, but I had some sensible fun with it. While it had gotten warmer, the wind had picked up, making some awesome patterns in the waves.

Write your story here. (Optional)

Luckily the digital camera started working again; we put it to use down the road from the cabin. When I shoot film, I like the aesthetic of the analogue medium. When I shoot digital, I like that I can push the photos to look hyper-realistic. Maybe I went a bit too far on these next ones, but you have to go too far to know where the line is.

Obviously a tripod came in handy for these shots; I was exposing for about a second, so handheld shots would be far too shaky. The nice thing about shooting these in digital is that when I got back to the cabin after dark, I had some fun playing with them on my computer.

A circular polarizing filter is really helpful for making skies darker. I used it off-and-on all day. For handheld photos, it dims the image too much, but it works well on a tripod.

Write your story here. (Optional)

We had already stopped several times for photos, so I felt a little bad about stopping again for some more. I rushed a few of these, leading to blurry photos from slow shutter speeds. Ashley assured me that this is exactly what we were in Iceland to do and that I should take my time.

We spotted this waterfall from very far away on the highway and were lucky enough be on a route that would take us very close. We turned in to a small rest stop at the base of the falls. We stayed for about 45 minutes before grabbing some hot chocolate and hitting the road again.

Photographing a waterfall at this distance was something I had never done. I mostly used my digital Fuji X100S to take many photos with bracketed exposures. By adjusting the shutter speed, you can make the waterfall seem to be frozen in time or to be a continuous cascade of moving water.

The spray off of the falls was quite impressive – both of us got quite wet. As long as I periodically wiped down the camera, I didn’t expect to have any more problems.

After experimenting with the digital camera, I had an idea of the shutter speed I’d need to make a photo on film. I set the camera and composed the shot with the lens cover still on my M6 (rangefinders are great like that). With the camera mounted to a tripod, I took the lens cover off, snapped the photo, and replaced it before any water could land on the lens.

Now that the snow had completely melted, we were able to see the vast landscape of Iceland. It is very difficult to traverse, but it’s harshness is abated by a strange kind of beauty. Considering that humans have inhabited this beautiful, desolate island for over a millennium, the harshness of the climate is a reminder of the perseverance of human kind.

After leaving the highway through a small makeshift gate in the fence, we drove several kilometres over the dunes of volcanic sand toward the ocean. We were nearing our destination, but the sun was already setting. Even though we were pushing to get as much time in daylight as possible, we still stopped to grab this photo looking back at the highway in the distance.

The car we had rented was an SUV for this particular reason: arriving at our destination – the one thing we had on our list to see in Iceland – meant climbing hills and crossing streams. We were nearly there when we came to a hill that was too steep to climb, so we got out and walked the remaining distance.

Forty years ago, a US Navy DC-3 was crossing the Atlantic when the crew believed that they were about to run out of fuel. The pilot chose to crash land on this beach on the South of Iceland; the crew survived and an investigation discovered that there was actually a whole other fuel tank on the aircraft. Oops.

The wreckage of the plane is still on the beach – surrounded by nothing but black sand, the torn wreckage sits alone.

I had brought a special roll of film just for these shots: a black and white film that is normally used in motion pictures. I wanted to give the scene a cinematic feeling; many of the photos below are shot on this film.

Daylight was escaping quickly, so we worked feverishly to get all the shots we could. After twenty minutes, the wind had whipped our faces raw and we decided to leave. From the airplane, we could see a marked, straight path back to the highway. While we were grateful to have had the opportunity for a fun ride to the airplane during daylight, we opted for the safer route home.

Of course, just because the sun had set didn’t mean that we couldn’t make more photos. We stopped at several locations on the way home to get some long-exposure night shoots of some interesting landscapes.

Day three

We woke up before sunrise on the third day. This was our last day in Iceland, as our plane back to Amsterdam was leaving the next morning at 7:40am. We didn’t have a designation in mind, so we decided to drive through Thinvellir park. Along the way, we stopped to take photos of the beautiful lake.

The term “daylight” is a relative term. Although the sun had risen, it was still difficult to shoot at lower speed films. I had brought some Ektar 100 to play with, but often had to use a tripod.

The wether in Iceland is very temperamental. It would begin raining and we would recompose the shot to capture the rainfall on the lake. By the time I had recomposed the shot, the rain had stopped.

The lake was beautiful – smooth, but not unaffected by the gentle wind, and surrounded by breathtaking mountains.

We continued our trek into the national park and came across a deep chasm. This is just one of the many casualties of the separating tectonic plates. Moving apart at a few centimetres a year, the landscape between the two plates, seen below, is in a constant state of upheaval.

Write your story here. (Optional)

For centuries, the people of Iceland met annually in this area. Every law was recited from memory by their leader, and his words were repeated by many people so everyone could hear.

The same clouds that prevented from seeing the Northern Lights also provided a majestic backdrop for our daytime photos. As I mentioned earlier, we didn’t have any expectations for what Iceland would be, but we were impressed nonetheless.

Write your story here. (Optional)

This next photo came at a high cost. I was climbing down into this chasm when my left foot became snagged on some roots beneath the moss. I lost my footing and fell a metre to land on a boulder. Thankfully, my head had landed on a rock that was covered in moss. My ribs were not so fortunate.

Ashley came running to the sound of my voice. With the wind knocked out of me, I could barely speak. Together, we found my glasses and brushed the moss and earth out of my hair. I lost some small camera accessories to the landscape, but my equipment was otherwise unharmed.

While I wanted to get back to the cabin as quickly as possible – the adrenaline was wearing off and the pain was growing – I wanted to finish the rolls of film in my cameras. I didn’t have time for the normal contemplation when making a photo, but looking back, the experience of speed-shooting to the end of a roll of film was definitely educational.

We were only twenty minutes from the cabin. We returned there as quickly as possible. Ashley made me some coffee and I stayed awake for several hours. My vision started becoming fuzzy and we considered driving, in the dark, to a hospital in Reykjavik. However, in another twenty minutes, my vision returned to normal.

While our trip had not ended in the final sunset over a picturesque landscape that I had imagined it would, I was comforted by the fact that I was still alive. Had my head landed a few inches away from where it did, I could easily have suffered severe head trauma and died. I reflected on the accident, Ashley, my cats, and my entire life. While I’m not happy that it had happened, the accident did give me a new perspective on my life.

Now, a month later, I’m weening myself off of the painkillers prescribed by a doctor. It will still be weeks before I’m able to sneeze, cough, or blow my nose without stinging pain from my ribs.

Write your story here. (Optional)

Iceland turned out to be more eventful than I had imagined. My wife and I got a lot of time to talk – while driving, making photos, or just over some coffee in the morning. It was exactly the kind of trip that we both needed after months of my depression.

I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel as much as I have in the past year. Iceland has been on my list of places to visit for a long time. It’s crossed off my list, but I already want to go back.