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Volcanic Footprint

Posted by
Darkelf Photography (Perth, Australia) on 1 February 2021 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

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There are many beautiful lava fields in Iceland. One of my first memories when travelling on a bus from Keflavik Airport was the lava field along the road to Reykjavik. It felt like such an alien landscape to me back then, especially with light rain falling all around. The fields vary greatly in their nature, from dark rough and rugged, to lush delicate looking ones. We found this field just south of the capital near an area called Reykjanesfólkvangur. I was immediately taken in by the overcast atmosphere and beautiful green tones of the moss. It had a surreal mood about it and we had to stop next to it to take some photos.

I took this photo hand held after walking along the edge of the lava field to find an interesting composition. The big blob of solidified lava on the left caught my eye, as well as the mountain in the distance. They worked well together to balance the scene. Clouds were moving fast and there was a bit of rain in the area so I had to pick my moment when to press the shutter button. I was looking for a bit of sunlight to come through onto the section between the foreground boulder and the mountain to create a kind of natural vignette effect and to lead the eye through the landscape.

The land forms created by the lava are magnificent and the re-growth that has occurred at some fields is really amazing. That green moss that we saw here was really delicate and gorgeous. It looked like a lush carpet thrown over the rocks. It had a wonderful texture to it and the way the green and black ashy tones mixed together produced a surreal result. I mentioned it previously but it did look like a different planet. No wonder they filmed some of the new Star Wars films on a similar field in the south of Iceland.

This is also an example of how worthwhile it is to look past the major attractions and locations. Most places, and Iceland especially, keep on rewarding if one is willing to explore off the main tourist routes and there are so many spots and different landscapes to find. Sometimes they are just a few steps away from the most popular places. One thing we have done in Iceland is that even on dark rainy days we drove around from place to place just to see if something new was hiding around the corner and we have been able to discover many interesting landscapes just by doing that.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 1/60 second F/8.0 ISO 400 17 mm

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