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Haldorsvíkar Church

Posted by
Darkelf Photography (Perth, Australia) on 12 April 2021 in Landscape & Rural.

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When driving back from Tjørnuvík, were I took the previous image, we stopped by another small village of Haldarsvík. There we found this lovely church overlooking the Sundini Sound and situated right next to Kluftá River. The stream was cascading beautifully and moody overcast conditions made it a perfect scene for a black and white impression.

We had learned of this church earlier but the location surpassed my expectations. When we stopped we did not have too much time as we were being chased by approaching rain and the wind was picking up significantly as well. I kept my camera and tripod ready in the car to allow myself for quick deployment should a photographic opportunity eventuate. I was able to set the equipment up fairly quickly and that allowed me to use the time to look for a composition. The stream below the bridge where I was standing attracted my eyes and I worked with the cascade to act as a leading line towards the church and to provide an interesting foreground. I liked the 'v' shape right at the bottom with the cascade between its arms, which I thought worked well to steer the vision through.

I used a graduated filter for the very top part of the scene to darken the clouds to add a little bit of drama and darker mood. That also helped me to control the exposure of the church to ensure that it did not end up blown out. I had to time taking photos in between the wind gusts to prevent the tripod from shaking and also to avoid water drops being blown onto the filter, which also required constant wiping between each photo. Strong winds meant that there was significant movement in any trees of grass and I had to frame a tighter composition to exclude any objects that were moving because they would have just ended up as distracting blur on the edges of the image.

While the weather conditions were difficult, I was more than happy to have this kind of weather rather than cloudless blue skies, at least from a photographic point of view. Obviously better weather would be more suitable for sightseeing but I like taking darker, moodier and dramatic photos as well and this was just that kind of scenery. Another bonus of such weather is that there are fewer people out and about, so if you are ever looking for a little bit of photographic solitude this is the time to be out there. Mind you, once the heavier rain came in, it was time for us to pack up and move along as well. This was to be the pattern for most of our Faroes stay.

As I was working on post processing I remembered how I enjoyed that contrast in the stillness of the church compared to the dynamic flow of the river and dark clouds in the background. When I saw this view, I was instantly thinking of the kind of photo that I posted today. I had a go at a colour version but that just did not work for my vision for this image. Black and white processing accentuated the contrast in elements and tones and that made a big difference to me.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 8/5 seconds F/11.0 ISO 50 17 mm

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