Polishing in Progress

Oceans are the great stone polishers. They start with rough cliffs and grind them into perfectly round pebbles. But I find the middle of this process filled with irregular shapes, sizes and chaotic arrangements the most interesting.

Polishing in Progress

Polishing in Progress

Taken with the Canon EOS 5DS R and Zeiss Otus 1.4/55 lens. Originally composed with the Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder and captured (after having a nice coffee and cake in the nearby cafe) with Kuuvik Capture 2. The exposure was elongated with a LEE Big Stopper.

Chaos of a Sandur

Sandur – the plain at the foot of a glacier built from sediments interwoven with thousands of meltwater river branches. Endless forms and variations. One of my favorite (if not the favorite) feature of the Icelandic landscape.

We arrived at this place in the middle of a great sunset, and first had a color image in my mind. But ended up with black and white as it conveys a cleaner message this way. This is an occasion when color distracts and confuses.

Chaos of a Sandur

Chaos of a Sandur

Taken with the Canon 5DS R and Zeiss Otus 1.4/55. The wind was strong, so I used ISO 400 to shorten shutter speed as much as possible, weighed the tripod down and used my body as a wind breaker in front of the camera and tripod.

Cloudy Highland Evening

Weather is ever changing in Iceland. The forecast said partly cloudy (my favorite) for the highlands, but during the two hours it takes to drive from Reykjavík to the southern end of Kjalvegur it had changed completely. So much that we had two drive literally in the clouds on the way back. Fortunately the cloudy weather combined with the rugged mountains could present some great photographic opportunities.

Cloudy Highland Evening

Cloudy Highland Evening

These kind of images with huge open sky over the landscape work really well with the immense resolution the Canon 5DS R and the Zeiss Otus 1.4/55 can deliver. Especially when printed large. While the eye can explore pleasing detail in the mountains, the large sky improves the feeling of being there. This is something I was unable to achieve with lower resolution images.

It was quite windy out there, so initial composition was made with the Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder from the comfort of the car. Focusing and exposure was done with Kuuvik Capture, and the car was used as a wind breaker. But despite this, I had to make several exposures since the fluctuating air can reduce sharpness when photographing distant objects with such a high resolution equipment.

Bláhnúkur Sunset

Unlike several things in Iceland, Landmannalaugar changed very little over the last decade. Well, the road seemed a bit worse (more washboards), despite my car having better suspension and tires than a vanilla 4×4, and thus more suitable for this type of roads.

I’ve been there a couple of times before, mostly in heavy rain and overcast days. But the last evening was spectacular. This is undoubtedly an advantage of living close to a subject and being able to go there anytime the weather is good.

Bláhnúkur Sunset

Bláhnúkur Sunset

The detail my 5DS R and Otus 1.4/55 delivers still amazes me. But the real icing on the cake is how the Zeiss renders the image.