View allAll Photos Tagged reflection_shots
Last month we spent a week vacation in Okinawa. I took this reflection shot at the Ishikagi Airport.
I processed a balanced and a photographic HDR photo from a JPG exposure, blended them, carefully adjusted the color balance and curves, added some vignetting, and desaturated the image. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.
Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.
-- ƒ/1.6, 26 mm, 1/120 sec, ISO 32, iPhone 15 Plus, HDR, 1 JPG exposure, IMG_1026_hdrj1bal1pho1-bw.jpg
-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © 2026 Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography
A simple reflection shot at south kensington station
Luke Agbaimoni - Tubemapper.com
it was really fun exploring this really beautiful creek, Oak Creek, by Red Rocks Crossing.....there's actually a couple of shallow bathing pools up this creek and another shallow part of the creek that is so still that you can get amazing reflection shots of the Cathedral Rock formation....pls. View On Black
We spent some days in Kyoto, Japan. Timing was perfect for Hanami, or cherry blossom viewing. After witnessing sunset at the iconic Kiyomizu-dera Buddhist temple, we went to nearby Ninenzaka, a charming pedestrian area known for its classic architecture, tea houses & cherry blossoms. Later at night I walked over to Maruyama Park, which was quite busy with Hanami. There was no wind, perfect for a reflection shot over a pond.
I processed a balanced and a paintery HDR photo from three RAW exposures, blended them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.
Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.
-- ƒ/8.0, 50 mm, 0.8, 4, 13 sec, ISO 400, Sony A7 II, Canon 50mm f0.95 "Dream Lens", HDR, 3 RAW exposures, _DSC5057_8_9_hdr3bal1pai5f.jpg
-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © 2023 Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography
Another of this serires of reflection shots, it was a morning that I will never forget and it will probably never be equalled, I hope you all enjoyed them as much as I witnessed it happening in front of my eyes and recording the events!
My today's Sunday slide is loosely based on yet another reflection shot. I hope everyone is having a ball like these moschus ox. Happy Sliders Sunday!
A nice sunny morning walk in the pier zone last Sunday, so full of life! I enjoyed a lot trying some reflection shots, like this one :)
That moment when standing out on a cold wet night pays off. Taking a trip to London for a night shoot to catch some trails started with a bit of a travel nightmare but ended with some great shots. This is St Paul's cathedral in London with some passing busses providing some extra lighting
Everyone was swarming the creek which marred the traditional reflection shots. Settled for the desert landscape at sunset.
St Pauls Cathedral shining bright at night at Christmas. I'd gone to this spot to find the new water feature that has recently been built in front of a new office development. Either by design or by happy accident this water feature gives an amazing reflection shot of the cathedral which I shall post later. But going back over my photos I really liked this one. In a way it reminds me of that famous photo of St Pauls taken in the blitz.
No double exposure! Reflection shot through the glass wall of a streetcar shelter. The woman is part of a photo advertisement for the montan university Leoben.
Look at the yellow - see the woman, look at the blue - see the building.
Sitting quietly on the river bank, planning a reflection shot when these little guys swam by. I didn't have a larger lens with me, so I made the best of what I did have. Sometimes, you've just got to count your blessings.
That was single handedly the best display of the aurora borealis that I've ever seen! I made the trip to Speedwell Lake and was fortunate that the lake was like a mirror most of the night. I always wanted to get a reflection shot of the aurora, it was nice to be able to do it so close to home!
I took this photo of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton from the east facing aspect of the building. I have been wanting to get this reflection shot for some time, but it was a bit of challenge as the pond is quite small. I decided that the blue sky of the day would create a dramatic feel in black and white.
This photo was featured by O2 UK on Instagram.
Follow me on instagram: @sagesolar
Its funny that each time I come to this station, im trying another shot, and I always end up with a puddle reflection shot. I do like the X shape of this image
Luke Agbaimoni - Tubemapper.com
When I woke up in Lone Pine, the sky was overcast and didn't look good for photography at all. As the sun rose, the clouds became more interesting and I loved this view after the Father Crowley Lookout. I stopped and took some shots with different framing and loved this one. This sky wasn't going to help with the reflections shot I was looking for at Lake Manly though. When I got to the lake, the conditions were pretty bad and had to wait until evening to try again.
We headed to Fort Bragg, a coastal town in northern California. The glass beach is supposed to have lots of sea glass. But we could not find much. There is however an interesting ocean pool, perfect for a reflection shot.
I processed a photographic HDR photo from a RAW exposure, carefully adjusted the curves, and desaturated the image. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.
Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.
-- ƒ/6.3, 16 mm, 1/2500 sec, ISO 200, Sony A6000, SEL-P1650, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC3719_hdr1pho1e.jpg
-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography
After our recent run of storms many of the fields around Barrow on Trent are utterly water logged. One such field provided a reflection shot of 66707 Sir Sam Fay heading 4F62 East Midlands Gateway to Seaforth.
Probably the most perfect reflection shot I've ever taken.
Passenger season is two weeks from the end as the Alaska Railroad's premier train, the Denali Star (230S) rolls south behind a pair of SD70MACs about 45 min from their destination of Anchorage after an all day 12 hr run from Fairbanks. This location is at MP 144.8 on ARR's mainline few miles north of the siding of Eklutna and right beside the Glenn Hwy but is very challenging to shoot.
I'd wanted to figure out how to get this shot for years, but between the highway and the tracks is a permafrost bog. Well, this particular year it was such a warm summer I just put on my Keen sandals and shorts and waded out there into the water above my knees to get this angle. It necessitated getting here early then staying perfectly still to allow the water to calm and then not redisturb it, but I do believe it was worth the effort!
Eklutna, Alaska
Wednesday September 2, 2015
I was invited to take photos of a big rocket launch by a space startup company in the Mojave Desert in California. I took the opportunity to travel that region. On Sunday I drove up north on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Near Bishop is a small Alpine lake called North Lake. The trees already lost the leaves at this time of the year, so fall colors. There was no wind, so the lake was very calm, perfect for a reflection shot.
I processed a balanced, a paintery, and a photographic HDR photo from three RAW exposures, blended them selectively, carefully adjusted the color balance and curves, and added an infrared false-color filter. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.
Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.
-- ƒ/6.3, 16 mm, 1/160, 1/640, 1/2500 sec, ISO 200, Sony A6000, SEL-P1650, HDR, 3 RAW exposures, _DSC8728_9_0_hdr3bal1pai5pho1e.jpg
-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography
37610 passes a flooded Brentingby on 28th October 2019 working 3Q76 March - Derby RTC test train
This is my 1st real effort at getting a reflection shot as there arent many possibilities, if any, round our area
Whilst I was there a chap from Environment Agency turned up to check the water level. Apparently this area is flooded deliberatly to prevent Melton Mowbray from flooding. Although the amount of water this season is exceptional he said there were further contingencies to prevent larger flooding
Last December I headed to Chur, a regional capital in the Swiss Alps. I went to high school there at the Kantonsschule. There was a Christmas market in the old part of the town. At times it was raining heavily. I ended up at the Arcas square for this reflection shot. There are concerts and other activities at this square in the summer.
I processed a balanced and a paintery HDR photo from three RAW exposures, blended them selectively, carefully adjusted the color balance and curves, and desaturated the image. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.
Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.
-- ƒ/5.0, 16 mm, 1/8, 1/30, 0.5 sec, ISO 800, Sony A6000, SEL-P1650, HDR, 3 RAW exposures, _DSC7431_2_3_hdr3bal1pai5j.jpg
-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography
Taken at Llwyn Onn Reservoir last weekend. I wanted to get some reflection shots and came home with so many shots so it will take me ages to go through them all! My OH when asked whether he liked this image just said "Hmmm" which is translated as "no I don't like it - as it is too morose but don't want to hurt your feelings!" Please don't worry about hurting my feelings if you don't like my shot though!!!!
"Far to the east, over ranges and rivers, lies a single solitary peak" Deep beneath the mountain lies Erebor, a former dwarf kingdom now ruled by the fearsome scourge Smaug. The slops of the mountain still reek of dragon fire as the forests refuse to heal from his attack on Dale and Erebor even after 60 years.
Now here's the underwhelming part, this isn't New Zealand, or Switzerland, this is Mount Washington in the Cascades (so actually it's not underwhelming, it's the best scenario, U-S-A!). I remember driving by several viewpoints on the 20 and just seeing this, but I never had the time to pull over to shoot it, until this Easter weekend. And even then I was still in a hurry (was trying to get to Sisters for the night). None of the perspectives of the lenses really worked. I got a nearby tree on a pullover, but the mountain was too far away with the same wide angle perspective, I had the clouds and the mountain when switching to the zoom but no identifiable or usable foreground.
But I anticipated this detour and had a premeditated fix. So in editing I did long and hard perspective blending. To line up the foreground better I mirrored the tree on the side and carefully added the more detailed, larger shot of the mountain over the tiny one. I still want to try to get a reflection shot here at Suttle Lake down the road but this is a photo I was envisioning for a while so I'm glad I got this Oregon Mountain shot that wasn't Jefferson or Hood.
This is the same pond where I took the Milky Way reflection shot, this is a morning shot.
Clear skies, calm winds, all other ponds in the area freeze over at night but this one remains ice free. I'm thinking the water might be deeper in this pond, taking longer to cool.
So, it was my first week living in California this past week and I’ve already been in an earthquake, hail storm, thunderstorm, heavy downpours, high winds: you name it! This past Wednesday, it just POURED practically all day in SoCal. Undeterred, and in fact excited, I grabbed my camera, and met up with my Disney pal Caleb and his roommate. We trekked around The Disneyland Resort for those epic reflection shots. Violate weather aside, we totally hit the jackpot on this particular evening: puddles, reflections: EVERYWHERE! Carsland is just…incredible in these conditions for photography! Lots more shots coming from this night for sure!
Incandescent and led candelabra libht bulbs
Focus stack (five images) Shot with two ova-camera strobes. Flash A, round head, mounted on overhead book, modified with grid and snoot, full extended. Flash b behind 24 inch velum scrim, modified with MagMod MagBounce. Center of scrim blocked with 18 x 20 inch black flgs to create a 2 inch strip light behind subject. 24 x 30 in black flags camera right and left, perpendicular to subject. 24 x 30 in black flag across table, in front of flash on boom to eliminate overhead reflections.
Shot for Crazy Tuesday - old and new
WNYP's afternoon switching job OL-2 out of Olean, NY performs their once a week shuffle of cars at Ardagh Group down in Port Allegheny, PA following early afternoon rain showers.
If you try to shoot this scene today, you'll instead have Erie livery GP15s in place of the Alco pair adorning this photo. It feels like any time anyone posts WNYP Alcos on here now that it comes with a somber mood, lamenting what time and quite frankly poor management has taken both from us as the railfans, and more chiefly the railroad itself. These days Port Allegany is the furthest south these guys travel, having scared away a big chunk of their sand traffic which used to go all the way to Emporium. Regrettably I never managed to chase an Emporium turn for whatever reason, but those runs are pretty well documented all the same so I don't feel too bad. My ever evolving mindset as far as prioritizing shots at the moment dictates I don't always have to go replicate someone else's shot at an important location for my own collection. There are of course still exceptions to that when something really catches my eye, but on the whole my goals lately have been documenting things no one else has. Anywhoser.
Sad boi hours aside, this in fact was a case of me seeing a friend's shots here and wanting it for myself. And y'know what? There's perfectly nothing wrong with that. I milked the heck out of this shoot too. Ardagh is a glass manufacturer, so the typical consist coming down for them is generally two and three bay covered hoppers. Today it seems the morning crew OL-1 will make the trip down here on Thursdays. However, at the time of shooting this, OL-2 was pairing this switch with their thrice-weekly Farmers Valley runs to International Waxes. I was told Wednesdays were the usual day to see this happen, so when I finally got my first glimpse of their train in North Eldred that day, imagine my disappointment when they had no glass hoppers with them. All would be revealed in time however when they got to the split point for the branch to Farmers Valley, tying down their train of tank cars on the main and taking a trip light power down to the port (which by the way, there is no major body of water in this town, so why it has the word port in its name is beyond me). As it turned out, these guys keep some cars on hand on a siding next to the plant. Smart usage of extant rails. Behind the point of view here just slightly to the north, there was a Saint-Gobain plant which also used to get rail service and covered hoppers alike, amid a couple other spurs on the other side of the tracks off to the left and out of view. That Saint-Gobain plant however is currently shuttered and non-operational, with no other tenants on site either. Safe bet it's been at least ten years since they switched there. If only I had a camera and a drivers license sooner! It may still not have been soon enough, but I sure would have seen some other cool stuff which no longer happens on this railroad, like switching reefers out for Cuba Cheese on the Hornell Line.
Sadly there was a reflection shot I nabbed at this very same spot that day with a large puddle behind me, which I accidentally and carelessly deleted while going through my frames in the car that same afternoon. Two years later I still double and even triple check what frames I have selected for deletion before pressing the button now. It was a cool shot, but not worth not taking any more photos that day just to try to preserve the spot for photo recovery software. The thought did linger in my mind though as I fired away shots at the next chase spot going north, imagining the shot I'd lost being permanently overwritten in that moment. Such is life. The daylight was long enough for early April that I was able to get some rather moody shots of these guys switching International Waxes a couple hours later. The newer LED headlights on these units are lens killers in darker conditions, but the right angle can diffuse most strong headlights, so I've found in my many night shoots over the years. I feel it's always worth adding that the crew was exceptionally friendly, and I remember exchanging horn toots with the engineer as I departed Farmers Valley later that evening. Other eventful memories from this day include getting pulled over in Olean and being written for my expired inspection sticker at the time (just another reason to love New York!), and also my dismay at Sheetz for changing their pizza recipe, from the doughy circle style I'd come to love to a thin crust rectangle. Perhaps a cost-cutting measure for them, or someone in corporate just decided they didn't like thick pizza. Either way, I haven't gotten another Sheetz personal pizza since, which is a shame because those were a go-to order for me. There was one other brief moment of frustration even before I got my first shot of the train that day, which by the way due to those LED headlights also caused that first shot to not turn out at all as it was raining at the time. I remember calling up CSX TouchTrace to check a covered hopper for a once a month customer in Rochester, only to find someone had pulled the car on an off day for their service schedule. However for whatever reason they did not replace that car with a new one, so the following morning I at least got redemption with a shot there of a new car going in. It was a day filled with ups and downs, and as an aside the town of Olean even dropped the ticket the state trooper gave me a month later once I fulfilled my inspection duty. None of these details are important to the shot, and yet, they make up a cohesive memory from the day surrounding it. That's worth something in my book. I'm just happy to have this shot with the Alcos above all else.
The Chinese Pistache tree in front of our home is showing itself in bright red colors right now. I poured water over the street pavement for a reflection shot - I took this shot in the blue hour after sunset.
I processed a realistic and a photographic HDR photo from three RAW exposures, blended them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.
Thank you for visiting - ♡ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, like the Facebook page, order beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.
-- ƒ/7.1, 16 mm, 0.4, 1.6, 6 sec, ISO 400, Sony A6000, SEL-P1650, HDR, 3 RAW exposures, _DSC5193_4_5_hdr3rea1pho1h.jpg
-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography
Viewed across the Peak Forest Canal aqueduct, DB Cargo Class 66/0 No. 66079 crosses Marple Viaduct and the River Goyt with 6H52, the 13:07 Dowlow Briggs Sidings – Ashburys loaded aggregate working on 31st December 2020.
For alternative railway photography, follow the link:
www.phoenix-rpc.co.uk/index.html to the Phoenix Railway Photographic Circle.
When the sky comes out to play and the waters quite still theres nothing better than a reflection shot. You don't need that much of a subject just a case of being there at the right time. This is taken from Ferry Hut in Runcorn, the old location for the original ferry that took passengers between Runcorn and Widnes across the River Mersey. The Manchester Ship canal now separates the river from the shore on the Runcorn side
Rainy reflection shot. I love capturing the door as it opens. I'm starting to build a collection of these
Luke Agbaimoni - Tubemapper.com
27.5.2022.
I was hoping to get the familiar 'reflection' shot of the abbey in the pool but the stiff breeze put paid to that!
Still makes a decent image though.
Some space at the Tate St Ives...
Simply because I wanted to…
I have no recollection of doing this at all..none. Put on in a hurry because Jonathan needs to use my PC to do his tax returns again today and he took all day yesterday but some part had been changed and he was over four hours and failed so got to try again..
He is not happy and neither am I tbh….
I have the use of my PC once again as Jonathan got his Tax sorted out so would like to add this is a double exposure done on Ps using a reflections shot of a mall gallery/ shop and one of my photos of the Tate St Ives...
i had completely forgotten this but i do like how the building of the Tate lined up with the shop window frame....thank you for looking.. Sue :)
I was slowly approaching the birdbath to try to catch the birds bathing and drinking there...but then I saw the reflection. Sorry birds, you were pre-empted! fortvan.org/item/providence-academy.html
Slightly disappointed with previous image reflection. This is a view I considered but opted for the reflection shot so I blended the two to see what it would've looked like. I'd appreciate any opinions?
45118 “THE ROYAL ARTILLERYMAN” and 57311 “The Institution of Mechanical Engineers” rumble onto The Mite Viaduct, Ravenglass on 26 June with 5Z36, the 0908 Ravenglass – Barrow CS, empty stock off the 2026 3Peaks Challenge.
After our rushed sunset shoot at Kirkjufellsfoss (see my image Take Me to Church Mountain) and the “missed” epic sunset the next day (see my image The Unexpected), we used the gained time to inform ourselves about the Westfjords and to buy the tickets for the ferry which should leave from Stykkishólmur the next day. We also thought: there are certainly some grocery stores in the Westfjords where we can stock up our supplies, but let’s ask Google just to be on the safe side. And good it was, because it turned out that the nearest grocery stores were more than an hour away from our arrival point and nowhere close to the three places we planned to go. Since our ferry was scheduled to leave at 3:15 p.m., we had plenty of time to do some grocery shopping before then. Having roughly planned the next day, we finally went to bed, this time a little earlier than usual, since for once we were not shooting the blue hour.
Since we didn’t photograph sunrise the next morning either, we had a relaxed breakfast, packed up our things and headed to the Bónus supermarket in Stykkishólmur. On our way, we were approaching the impressive Kirkjufell again and my girlfriend said: How about we try again to get such a nice reflection shot down at the lake? Two days ago, after our rushed sunset shoot, I noticed that everyone was standing right next to Kirkjufellsfoss and literally no one was down at the lake. After telling my girlfriend about the possibility to get such a reflection shot, I didn’t need any further convincing and so we headed down. In my mind I had an image of the majestic Kirkjufell mountain bathed in various shades of blue as the light continued to fade, along with a beautiful reflection in the water that would add a very nice symmetry to the composition. We had almost all ingredients together for a wonderful image, but I hadn’t thought about the shallow angle of the remaining light, which created a not very appealing shadow of Kirkjufell in the water instead of a nice reflection. Also, the wind picked up, so even a 30s exposure didn’t smooth out the water as much as I would have liked. The picture I took is still beautiful, but it seems to be missing something, and therefore I decided to show you the picture I took this morning on our way to Stykkishólmur.
After my girlfriend mentioned the reflection shot, it was immediately clear to me that it could work this morning, as it was almost completely windless. Moreover, the sun was already higher in the sky, which meant that the angle of light should now be perfect for getting the shot we were hoping for. So we stopped at the parking lot, payed the parking fee for the third time in a few days, and went down to the lake. And there it was: A perfect reflection of this majestic colossus! And to top it off, we also got some moody clouds in the sky right above church mountain. So we set up our tripods, put on our filters with which we smoothed out the few little ripples in the water, and left this place after an hour with a big grin on our faces that got even bigger when we though about the adventure of exploring the Westfjords in the next few days. I hope you like it!
PS: My girlfriend is quite new to photography, but has a really good eye for compositions and I think she would be very happy if you would check out her profile too: www.flickr.com/photos/193130995@N02
The River Lee in Cork is a great place to capture some amazing reflection shots. Cork is a wonderful city to visit on the southeast Ireland coast - it is under three hours travel time by train from Dublin.
Everything was cleaned when President Obama came to visit, so i could take this photo in a small pool for a nice reflection shot.
Week 6 of 2024 has been a little unusual for the desert. We got quite a bit of rain. On average the Phoenix area gets about 9 inches (~23cm) of rain/year. And this week we probably got about an inch (~2.5cm) total. Jasper does not like getting wet so that limited the frequency and places we walked. Standing water in the green spaces. I rarely get to take water reflection shots of Jasper, so I took the opportunity. Jasper was not all that amused by posing in front of a giant puddle, but he did it anyway.
- Arthur Conan Doyle.
|| insta || blog || photostream ||
A panorama I captured while driving down the Turnagain Arm on our first day in Alaska. I believe we drove during low tide, which made it difficult to get a reflection shot, but when we finally found one, it was perfectly still, allowing for a decent reflection of the mountain ranges on the other side. Even though I had heard about how windy this part of the state can get, there was surprisingly little wind that evening. Little did I know it was the calm before the storm. The next morning, there were gale-force winds and a small hailstorm at the exact location.
That perennial favorite of shy street photographers... the old storefront window reflection shot. I used a Minolta X370 in 1992 or so. T-Max 5052. I digitized the film with my 5D (Classic), an Olympus Zuiko 50mm macro lens with some extension tubes, and a homemade slide duplicator.
Explored 17 December, 2023 (#205)
After weeks of monsoon rain, this morning looked cloudy, but the sun was out! Clouds after long periods of rain usually mean no haze, so it seemed a good opportunity to get some reflection shots from the shores of Songkhla Lake - a lagoon bigger than Singapore!
Blustery wind didn't help my cycle, nor did it bode well for reflections. Either way I was committed now, and sure enough the water was not only stacked up in waves, but also the colour of Thai iced-tea (a shade of reddish-brown). Undeterred, I focused instead on the clouds themselves.
These four photos - for me - represent the cream of this morning's shoot.
These are a few more of the glass and light reflection shots I took the other night. Aged glass has such a deep beauty and holds so much life and light in it.
They're remodeling Mon Ami next week and changing all the colors. I don't like to see things that are beautiful change so I'm taking as many images now. Who knows, maybe I'll love the new color scheme too. I just hope they don't get rid of the antique doorknob I love so much.
Take care and be well ~ Beth =]
Compositionally Challenged
Week 29 Reflections
Shot with an Enna "Correlar 80 mm F 2.9" lens on a Canon EOS R5.
“Shall we do Skogafoss first today and then work our way back via Dyrholaey? It might be a bit quieter if we go in the morning before the coachloads arrive.”
It was the last full day of shooting in the area around our base at Vik, and so far, results had been mixed since arriving at the Puffin Hotel on Saturday evening. While we agreed that the waffle makers at the breakfast buffet were a touch of genius on the part of the proprietors, and while we almost swooned with delight at the lamb goulash served in enormous bowlfuls of warm filling splats at the Ice Cave Restaurant, there was little doubt that conditions had been challenging. Sunday had been mostly dry, and had at least allowed us to wander across the black sands of Reynisfjara and then up onto the plateau of Dyrholaey, with some fairly pleasing, although not ecstatically charged results. Shooting back towards the east and the sea stacks of Reynisdrangar had been a constant battle against a steady drizzle as the afternoon headed towards evening.
Monday however, had been extremely difficult from the moment we opened the curtains of our hotel room to witness a heavy blast of rain flying sideways along the street. Not a day without any images at all, as a later post will show you, but one that was mostly spent mooching about in the hotel before heading for the shopping centre to buy presents for the ladies in our lives and my yet to be born grandchildren. I think Monday may in fact have delivered one of my favourite images from the trip, and almost certainly my favourite story, but you’ll have to bear with for a moment, as the queue for the editing suite is as long as it’s ever been right now. You’re going to laugh though – that’s all I’ll say for the moment. Hold that thought.
So we were hanging quite a lot of our hopes on Tuesday. The day had started dry and without wind and we knew that somewhere, there was a reflection of Skogafoss to be had. Exactly where was less certain, although we had an idea. But should we seek that spot first, or should we head for the main car park and brave the crowds to get the close-up shots of the waterfall. Of course, if you’re an early riser and you can resist the abundant temptations posed by the waffle makers, this sort of thing isn’t really going to trouble you, but some of us are made of less stern stuff I’m afraid – besides which I’m not sure that Skogafoss really cuts it as a sunrise or sunset location. Not in September anyway. In the event, we rolled into the main car park, deciding the reflection shot could wait. Only one coachload of selfie seekers had been disgorged by 10am, and so we reached for our wellies and entered the fray, Lee’s famous Friday night five a side elbows swinging around wildly to ward off the worst of them as we set up our shots. I’m glad I got the shot I really wanted from here in 2019 is all I’ll say, but I think I might have something to share later. Possibly. It was fun anyway. Lee certainly came away with a shot he liked. There’s a link to his feed at the end of this story by the way. I think that most of you already follow him, but just in case you didn’t, he’s been unusually productive since we came back from Iceland, so I’d jump aboard quickly if I were you.
After half an hour, by which time four more coaches had arrived, we clambered up the long zigzag staircase to the top of the waterfall, where the famous troll shots appear to be no longer possible, thanks to the health and safety team at Skogafoss. Maybe it’s another accident blackspot – who knows? But if you’re going up top, hoping to grab that shot, I’m sorry to break it to you but you’re going to be disappointed unless they've built a side exit to the staircase since I wrote this. But on the flipside you’ll be glad you made the two hundred foot climb, as another post that will come later will hopefully persuade you. It’s really rather nice up there and you’ll be glad of the reward as you reacquaint yourself with the concept of oxygen and breathing it in and out again. How many later posts is that I’ve committed to now?
Finally, it was time to seek out that reflection, although it hadn’t escaped our notice that there was now a distinctly breezy feel to the air. The road now in front of us didn’t appear to be private, although it led only to a farm that nestled snugly at the foot of the massif that runs unbroken across the south coast of Iceland all the way back to Seljalandsfoss. We’d spotted a large pond on the online map that seemed to be the obvious candidate, which needed further investigation. As I splashed my way through a ford that threatened to drown my welly boots, I turned to find a dozen pairs of eyes gazing intently in my direction. Where had they come from? Were we going to inadvertently harry them out onto the ring road when we drove back towards it, having now discovered that we were definitely in the wrong spot? I returned to the car where Lee was waiting for the results from the exploration party and chewed yet another tasteless protein bar that was supposed to pass for lunch as the sheep gradually dispersed in the way that sheep always do. Up the sides of almost vertical mountains seems to be their favourite grazing ground around here.
And then at the end of the road we realised we’d been missing the patently obvious all along. Quite how we’d not seen the lake beside the main road I really can’t say, but there it was, waiting, rippling urgently, with a huge waterfall reflected on the smoother part of its surface. On the edge of the high ground, hints of mist and mood pervaded the scene, mingling with the spray from Skogafoss and doing what Iceland does best of all. And we were still being watched, by a much smaller committee – just to make sure we weren’t causing any trouble you know. Isn’t it great when a pair of sheep bring something to a landscape such as this? It was an image I always knew was going to be edited in mono. The strip of land upon which Dolly and Deirdre are standing was a strange washed out orange that no amount of colour processing was going to render with any sense of satisfaction.
You’ve seen (hopefully) a number of images from this adventure so far, all in full colour and there will be many more of those to follow. But Iceland is a country that so often lends itself to black and white, particularly I feel when the subject is as clear and obvious as a two hundred foot waterfall can be. You’d think it might be a favourite moment, although in truth we were right beside the ring road and that protein bar really hadn’t done the job it was intended to do, I really needed to do what a man of certain years has to do, and another visit to the Ice Cave Restaurant was on our minds. But I’m pretty sure it’s going to end up being one of my favourite images from the trip. The walls at home are going to run out of space pretty quickly at this rate.
Finally, thanks again to everyone who sent their kind wishes on the birth of my granddaughter last weekend. That really meant a lot you know. Mother and baby are doing well, and Grandad is a soppy old fool who melted at first sight of her of course.
Lee's Flickr Feed: www.flickr.com/photos/110542147@N08/