Golden Circle

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Is it reality or inside "Lord of the rings" world?

Another image from Þingvellir national park and Öxarárfoss falls, just before sunrise the sky just starting to display some interesting colours inbetween rain showers, the light here totally different to the last shot posted from here in the golden light that came through, I wanted to post this one too to show the difference, the blue colour in the falls was really really punchy and I'm not sure what causes this, we saw it a few times around Iceland at different falls, once the warm light hit the falls this virtually vanished (see other image) replaced by a rainbow to the right hand side of the falls.

It was very cold this morning hence the name of the image, yet another another nightmare to shoot because of the amount of spray but a real joy to be there and witness the changing of the light onto the volcanic rocks first thing in the morning with hardly anyone else around, a real magical place.

Managed to use a 3 stop filter here despite the spray to give the required ball park shutter speed that I like to use for this kind of shot, I could have done with some windscreen wipers for it!

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Oxarafoss waterfalls, 'Golden Circle' - Iceland.

Iceland is divided by the Mid-Atlantic Rift; some parts of it, such as the Westfjords and Reyjavík, are on the North American tectonic plate, while others, such as Vatnajökull glacier and the East Fjords, are on the Eurasian plate. Iceland is the only place in the world where this rift is above sea-level, and nowhere can you see the edges of both plates as clearly as in Þingvellir. You are literally walking between 2 continents!

This was the first place I ever visitied in Iceland outside of the City, 3 visits ago, it was a dull overcast rainy day, no snow, and flat light, while we where there out of absolutely nothing we got treated to an incredible (but very brief ) vivid light show at sunrise which lit the entire valley, as soon as it had started it finished, and back to the dull sky again...

This trip was the first time I'd been back since and the conditions couldn't have been more different! thick snow, ice everwhere, and frequent blizzards blowing through the valley.

Once again for a very brief moment the sunlight broke out of nowhere and lit up all the valley, picking out all the details and reflecting in what was left of the (mostly frozen) river, I was in the wrong place for this shot as I didn't see it happening and had to leg it to get into position, narrowly missing the opportunity of getting a sunstar behind the cliffs, that said I'm really not complaining as I didn't think I would get any kind of golden light at all on the way up here!

For anyone who has seen the shots & videos on facebook you will know what the conditions were like as my D850 is completely covered in snow on the tripod, blizzard conditions, one of our party looked like a yeti as he was that covered in snow.

Hard work but toitally worth it, I much prefer stuff like this than straight forward shoots as you really do feel like you have worked for it.

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Urridafoss doesn't seem to be a popular waterfall along the Golden Circle tourist route although it is very beautiful.

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Dawns breaks over Þingvellir national park (pronounced Thingvellir), we had driven here in the dark and as we arrived further along the road at the main point up to the summit the weather was poor, drab light and light rain, about as bad as it could be without it actually pouring down, after a bit of an explore of the area we decided to try and get to these falls that we had seen on the way in but at the time it was too dark and we couldn't see how to get to them.

After backtracking we spotted the small track that led down to the right place and after a short hike reached the Waterfall (Oxarafoss). the weather was still pretty poor but the rain had lightened off to next to nothing so set about getting some shots, as with most waterfalls I shot in Iceland this week the first thing you notice is how much spray comes off them! even if you are nowhere near the base you are constantly wiping the lens / filters after each shot it really is difficult to get clean shots with no water spots, I've binned countless images from the trip due to it even with being very careful.

Luckily this shot was one I had hoped hadn't been ruined, and it turned out so, for about 45 seconds (maybe less) the sun appeared through the cloud and just totally transformed the scene from cold and foreboding into a magical golden scene, illuminating all the rocks with a warm glow and even a rainbow briefly appearing in the left hand side of the falls, the curious bright icy blue colour (forthcoming image) that was in the top of the falls had now dissipated - replaced with warmth, I was so lucky with this as I was already set up to take a shot when it happened, if I had been moving around I would more than likely have missed it, just after this the sun went in again and never reappeared.

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Another view of the ever present rainbow visible over the series of waterfalls at Gulfoss, in southern Iceland....

2 shots combined

Hraunfossar is a series of waterfalls formed by rivulets streaming out of the Hallmundarhraun lava field.

I found Gullfoss very difficult to photograph as this consists of multiple stages of zillions of falls. When I shot this, wind was blowing at over 40 mph and the temperature was about 28 deg F.

Roadtrip in Iceland summer 2015 - Roadtrip en Islande été 2015

Ásólfsskálakirkja is a another beautiful Icelandic church just in front of the hotel we stayed in the town of Hvolsvöllur.

This is not an impressive waterfall of Iceland due to its height or the volume of water flowing through it, it is a small waterfall but it is special because the water appears directly from the vegetation giving to the cascade a really special aspect. The colours of the rocks are also special. I would recommend you to visit Hraunfossar, in the west of the island. You will enjoy its view.

The shot was taken near mid-day and I used a 6-stop ND filter in order to obtain a long-exposure (4 seconds).

Vue d'ensemble

The singular most impressive and dramatic waterfall I've had to pleasure to see, Gullfoss in South West Iceland. The sheer power of this falls is hard to take in, you can hear it a long time before you actually see it, definitely a 'wow' moment when it does come into view, something like 140 cubic meters per second falls down into the crevice below!

We were really lucky with the weather here as it had been raining off and on that morning and heavy cloud, luckily it held off here and had some nice golden light, along with the rainbow which appeared and the disappeared again, the one big bonus of these falls opposed to the others we visited on the trip is that there is hardly any spray to contend with as you are a lot higher up allowing me to use filters without wiping the lens every few seconds, a polarizer was just about impossible anywhere else but ideal here with the sun in the right place at this time of day allowing a much more pleasing exposure time.

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2 shots stitched

We found this terrific small church just outside Hraunfossar waterfall. Looks like this was built with Lego blocks :-)

A long exposure, landscape image of Öxarárfoss falls in Þingvellir, Iceland.

The Scottish weather just isn't playing ball at the moment so this one...

A long exposure, landscape image of Öxarárfoss which flows over and through the continental rift at Þingvellir in Iceland.

I used another image...