Steve Pellatt
More Time Needed
Diamond Beach, Iceland
For anyone who has been to iceland (or researched going) Diamond beach is one of the most iconic locations in a country full of them. Togs dream of having the beach to themselves with pristine sand, a good selection of ‘diamonds’, nice wave action and beautiful light.
Well I got some of those but not all!
Day 2 of the workshop saw us starting at Skogafoss and Kevernufoss waterfalls and then driving 3+ hours to Diamond Beach for sunset. For the last hour of the trip I was looking out the side window at a thin gap between the horizon and a band of cloud with the sun behind it. With no sign of the gap closing my excitement for some soft orange light increased the closer we got to Diamond beach. Unfortunately my ‘anxiety’ also increased as the clock ticked ever onwards towards sunset. It’s at times like this I regretted not being the master of my own destiny and able to just avoid stopping for a lunch break on-route.
We pulled into the car park with about 15mins to go to sunset so it was a case of jumping out, grabbing my bag and tripod and zooming off to a relatively lightly diamond studded beach with lots of people tramping over the sand☹️.
The sun was touching the horizon by the time I reached the beach so I had almost no time to pick my diamond but was looking for one of the transparent diamonds to get the orange light shining through it.
I managed to get 3 quick shots off before the sun disappeared of which this was one. I have used a ‘lens blur’ filter to simulate a narrow depth of field to help remove the distractions of footprints and peoples legs. With more time I might have found a similar diamond near the water and got a cleaner shot but to my mind it’s better to have shot before the sun set rather than compose a better shot and have missed it!
© All rights reserved to Steve Pellatt. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.
More Time Needed
Diamond Beach, Iceland
For anyone who has been to iceland (or researched going) Diamond beach is one of the most iconic locations in a country full of them. Togs dream of having the beach to themselves with pristine sand, a good selection of ‘diamonds’, nice wave action and beautiful light.
Well I got some of those but not all!
Day 2 of the workshop saw us starting at Skogafoss and Kevernufoss waterfalls and then driving 3+ hours to Diamond Beach for sunset. For the last hour of the trip I was looking out the side window at a thin gap between the horizon and a band of cloud with the sun behind it. With no sign of the gap closing my excitement for some soft orange light increased the closer we got to Diamond beach. Unfortunately my ‘anxiety’ also increased as the clock ticked ever onwards towards sunset. It’s at times like this I regretted not being the master of my own destiny and able to just avoid stopping for a lunch break on-route.
We pulled into the car park with about 15mins to go to sunset so it was a case of jumping out, grabbing my bag and tripod and zooming off to a relatively lightly diamond studded beach with lots of people tramping over the sand☹️.
The sun was touching the horizon by the time I reached the beach so I had almost no time to pick my diamond but was looking for one of the transparent diamonds to get the orange light shining through it.
I managed to get 3 quick shots off before the sun disappeared of which this was one. I have used a ‘lens blur’ filter to simulate a narrow depth of field to help remove the distractions of footprints and peoples legs. With more time I might have found a similar diamond near the water and got a cleaner shot but to my mind it’s better to have shot before the sun set rather than compose a better shot and have missed it!
© All rights reserved to Steve Pellatt. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.