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simonharding
Hvalnes, eastern Iceland
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Hvalnes, eastern Iceland



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Once you drive beyond Höfn on Route 1, the landscape takes on an other-worldly grandeur. The Hvalnes lighthouse is behind me. One of the most breath-taking lan...
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Once you drive beyond Höfn on Route 1, the landscape takes on an other-worldly grandeur. The Hvalnes lighthouse is behind me. One of the most breath-taking landscapes I have ever seen.
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cameraNIKON D800

settings Aperture f/8 ISO 100 Shutter 1/320 Focal Length 400/10 

upload_dateSep, 2015

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3 Comments |
Neckbone
 
Neckbone April 18, 2017
Beautiful scene and capture!
deannefortnam
 
deannefortnam May 01, 2017
This is superb!
simonharding
simonharding August 29, 2017
Thank you :-)
CPKphoto
 
CPKphoto February 16, 2021
Paysages magnifiques
simonharding
simonharding February 16, 2021
Vraiment. Merci 🙂

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Tags

#iceland #hvalnes #eastern #mountains #volcanic
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Behind The Lens

Location

This image of the Eystrahorn was taken from the lighthouse at Hvalnes point, south east Iceland. The car in the picture is mine. I was annoyed afterwards for not going back and moving it, but I was on a tight schedule.....a lobster dinner was calling to me from my hotel! It would be easy to edit out, but I now think it helps to add scale. The farm buildings at the foot of the scree slopes do the same job, though.

Time

It was taken in late afternoon light in June. I was lucky that the light was warm on the colours of the mountains in front of me. The clouds were changing all the time; sometimes concealing, sometimes revealing the peak of the Eystrahorn.

Lighting

The light was as presented to me, so the key factor to me was composition. I wanted some clouds obscuring the peak to create some mystique, and I wanted the rough foreground to underpin the rawness of the landscape.

Equipment

This image was taken with a hand-held Nikon D800 DSLR and a Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 zoom lens.

Inspiration

I originally intended to visit the lighthouse to take pictures of the coastal cliffs and waves etc, as well as the view westwards towards the Vestrahorn. I climbed out of the car and was confronted with this scene. It literally took my breath away! Inspiration was right in front of me. The Eystrahorn was looking magnificent in the later afternoon sun, a hint of warmth in the light seemed to be amplified by the mountain, bringing forward a "Golden Hour" feel. Needless to say, I took quite a few pictures of this!! It's important to mention that this image is a single shot. Dramatic panoramas can be made which include the mountains and screes to the west and east of this view. It would have been harder not to capture a decent image, as the landscape here does all the work for you.

Editing

Not very much processing was involved here, other than the RAW file conversion. The usual contrast and sharpening was applied in Photoshop, but that was about it. This image is reduced in resolution for the web, but the original file size (created from a single RAW image) is 100Mb. I try (not always successfully) to edit the image in line with what I saw and felt at the time of capture. It's very easy to ruin images with Lightroom and Photoshop Add-ins and Presets....creating an image that was not presented to you. This is only my purist approach; it's not to criticise other approaches to editing.

In my camera bag

On this visit to Iceland, I was armed with only a Nikon D800 and a 24-70mm f2.8, which is a superb lens. Sharp at all apertures, but exquisite at f8. This lens allows me to stop right down to f22 and create soft water effects without the need for large factor ND filters. On this particular occasion, I did not have a tripod or any other equipment. As always, I use the in-camera level to make sure everything is "true", my ISO was set to 100, which still enabled me to capture the image at 1/200th sec......after exhaling slowly and gently releasing the shutter.

Feedback

They say if you don't like the weather in Iceland, just wait 5 minutes. It is very true, and clouds do not mean that the camera should be put away. Always carry a tripod (which I didn't!!) as this always improves composition, and allows time to breathe and think. Watch how the clouds cast their shadows on the landscape, and wait for the ultimate counter-play of light and shade. This adds depth to the image. Take lots of pictures!! They say "capture what you feel, not just what you see"....this is very much the case in Iceland - the Photographer's Paradise.

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