The Frozen Flow

"The Frozen Flow" | Jokulsarlon beach, Iceland

"The neverending motion of Nature, synchronized with every living creature, frozen on a single moment of time."

José Ramos ©

Shot during an afternoon session in Jokulsarlon, on the last day of the trip, right before I suddenly decided to head once more towards the Vesturhorn mountains.

Not easy to explain the intense excitement of being in such an amazing place, a true paradise for landscape photographers and beauty appreciators. The beach is everything I imagined it would be, perhaps larger, with more "chunks" of ice than I thought. The wind is blowing strong and the sea is wild. I know I keep repeating this, but this was yet another extremely difficult place to photograph. First there are way too many possible good compositions, and beauty overload can easily wreak havoc inside a landscape photographer's brain. Then the salty water spray is strong and almost constant, even more intense than in portuguese beaches. As if this wasn't enough, those stubborn pieces of ice can't keep still for more than some seconds! I'm know I'm sounding a bit negative, but the truth is that I just loved it!

This is not a good place for long exposures, as you want to capture the motion of the water, as well as avoid blurring due to the ice moving with the strength of the waves. The problem is that the sky, although cloudy, was hindering the sense of flow created by the waves motion. As such, I decided to do a very long exposure of the sky (120 seconds) and do some basic exposure blend on photoshop.

Had the chance to try the new Formatt Hitech Firecrest 3 stop Reverse ND Grad prototype on this beach, and I just loved it. Can't wait to try their full line of Firecrest filters!

Technical data:
Sony a77 + Sigma 10-20mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: f-9
Exposure: 2.5 seconds - 120 seconds
Filters: Formatt Hitech Firecrest 3 stop reverse ND Grad prototype; 10 stop ProStop IRND filter for the 120second long exposure
Wireless remote shutter
Manfrotto MT055XPRO3 tripod + MH055M0-Q6 ballhead
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