Skógafoss in Monochrome
From my 2017 trip to Iceland. Even though I was a good distance from the falls, the spray engulfed everything around me. When I took my lens cap off, immediately droplets formed on UV filter. Within three or four seconds, Skógafoss looked like a blur through the lens. So, I would walk back to my car--perhaps 300-400 meters away, leaving my tripod behind--get in, clean off my lens, walk back, reattach my camera, quickly take off my lens-cap and take a two second exposure. I repeated this sequence four times in the hopes of getting a decent shot. At least, that was the routine after first futilely trying to clean the lens there in the open. I ended up with some motion blur in a couple shots--no doubt jostling the camera/tripod in my hurried efforts. This shot was free of such blur, and was the shot with the fewest spots, which is by no means meant to suggest there weren't that many. I removed dozens, and many of the fainter ones remain--no doubt accumulating late in the exposure and thereby making less of an impact. I tried some shots with my long lens from a greater distance thinking that with the much larger hood and greater distance would make the lens free of droplets. Certainly there were fewer spots on the resulting photos, but they were still far from spotless. Since the above photo was a bit sharper, I went with it in spite of the problems.
In any case, this is one gorgeous waterfall. Many consider it the most beautiful falls in all Iceland. Hard to make a definitive judgment on that as there are SO many falls, each with its own unique characteristics. Though I saw perhaps 20 major falls, and countless minor ones, there were still many that I was not able to witness. Is a second trip there inevitable? I can think of worse fates. :-)
The white spots on the rocky walls are birds, BTW--kittiwakes.
If interested, I uploaded a color version of a virtually identical shot (though the B&W is definitely better) which can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/80014607@N05/36139646510/in/album-7...
Skógafoss in Monochrome
From my 2017 trip to Iceland. Even though I was a good distance from the falls, the spray engulfed everything around me. When I took my lens cap off, immediately droplets formed on UV filter. Within three or four seconds, Skógafoss looked like a blur through the lens. So, I would walk back to my car--perhaps 300-400 meters away, leaving my tripod behind--get in, clean off my lens, walk back, reattach my camera, quickly take off my lens-cap and take a two second exposure. I repeated this sequence four times in the hopes of getting a decent shot. At least, that was the routine after first futilely trying to clean the lens there in the open. I ended up with some motion blur in a couple shots--no doubt jostling the camera/tripod in my hurried efforts. This shot was free of such blur, and was the shot with the fewest spots, which is by no means meant to suggest there weren't that many. I removed dozens, and many of the fainter ones remain--no doubt accumulating late in the exposure and thereby making less of an impact. I tried some shots with my long lens from a greater distance thinking that with the much larger hood and greater distance would make the lens free of droplets. Certainly there were fewer spots on the resulting photos, but they were still far from spotless. Since the above photo was a bit sharper, I went with it in spite of the problems.
In any case, this is one gorgeous waterfall. Many consider it the most beautiful falls in all Iceland. Hard to make a definitive judgment on that as there are SO many falls, each with its own unique characteristics. Though I saw perhaps 20 major falls, and countless minor ones, there were still many that I was not able to witness. Is a second trip there inevitable? I can think of worse fates. :-)
The white spots on the rocky walls are birds, BTW--kittiwakes.
If interested, I uploaded a color version of a virtually identical shot (though the B&W is definitely better) which can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/80014607@N05/36139646510/in/album-7...