Iceland – Ice
If the dark and rainy time spent on the south coast of Iceland threatened to steal my patience and peace of mind, it was the ice that came next that brought back both for me. I was reminded that bad moods are my own choice, and unexpected events like rain, fog and wind definitely don’t cause them. Having left the visits that weren’t meant to be behind we turned the corner for the eastern side of the island and headed in the direction of Jokulsarlon and Diamond Beach. While the wind and rain still pounded the beautiful landscapes I seen a bright foggy glow ahead. Once I got close enough, I realized that I was seeing a massive glacier covered mountain and I had come upon Fjallsárlón by accident, and it was a beautiful accident. As I pulled in it seemed everyone else was exiting and walking out. I hopped out with my camera and one lens, rain cover, rain coat, rain pants and went up over the hill to the lake and it was magic. The glacier was so close and beautiful and for about 20-30 minutes I had the entire place to my self at the same time that the rain stopped.
Feeling recharged and accepting that I would be shooting in wind and rain, I headed on to Eystri-Fellsfjara(Diamond Beach). By the time I arrived the rain had resumed so I trusted my camera rain covers and my own rain gear and rolled around in the surf to photograph these gorgeous chunks of glacier ice that break up in the ocean and wash back up on the shore. All of the photos below are shot handheld without a tripod and shutter speeds down to .5 seconds with the magnificent Canon RF70-200/4 which combined with the R5 give generous image stabilization. To the right is a special bonus behind the scenes photo that may be one of the best portraits of me while taking the two photos just below.
