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Whispers In The Dark

Posted by
Darkelf Photography (Perth, Australia) on 30 August 2020 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

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We made a return to Iceland last year. It was our third time in this amazing country. I still have not been to many many places yet but out of all our travel destinations so far, this is my favourite by a long way. I consider it my home away from home now and the only downside is that obviously there are only limited opportunities to go there (and that is without even taking the current circumstances into consideration). There is just something about Iceland that keeps the attraction going and I know I am not the only one that feels this way. When we went last year, I was a little more relaxed in terms of photography. I decided to just enjoy the place and not put too much pressure on taking photos all the time. There were some locations where I set time aside for "proper" photography but in others I just went with the flow. I really would like to go there one day for a few months and just travel short distance each day to truly discover everything it has to offer.

The first photo comes from a very well known and accessible location - Gullfoss - one of the main waterfalls of Iceland that is only a couple of hours drive away from Reykjavik. I missed my chance to be there in the morning, which is probably the best time to be there to avoid crowds, and that meant I had to try to find a good spot where I was able to minimise the impact of people moving about and exploring the area. I chose a perspective looking east towards the most upper part of the falls from the viewing point that is closest to the waterfall. This is not the classic view of the deep ravine and the dramatic fall but rather of the "beginning" of the waterfall where the waters just start to gather their momentum before the fall. Choosing this perspective also worked in my favour by keeping the water spray moving away from my lens.

I loved the dynamic feeling of the water before my eyes. I mentioned in the last photo that I prefer the dreamy, silky smooth effect of longer exposures on the moving water. In this case, I loved the textured look of the water at faster shutter speeds. I took a number of photos at various exposure settings, from about 0.25 second to 10 seconds to see how the flow would look like as the exposure increased. My final choice was exposure of 0.4 second where the water was not "frozen" but where the texture was well defined and not blurred out completely. I love this final result of such organic movement and great drama with the dark clouds adding further to the atmosphere. When I look at it, I feel like standing right there again within touching distance of the water as it thunders all around me. The noise was incredible as was the spray when facing the other way. Waterproof clothing sure came in handy at this location.

While I love the iconic views of Iceland with the well known classic takes on waterfalls and mountains, I also love to be able to find something a little different and I felt that I achieved it with this photo. It may not scream epic right away but it feels a lot more intimate and it felt like getting to know a good friend even better, if that makes any sense. I hope you enjoy the photo as well and that you can imagine yourself standing there with the water flowing all around you.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 2/5 seconds F/8.0 ISO 100 19 mm

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