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Saksun

Posted by
Darkelf Photography (Perth, Australia) on 21 July 2021 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.

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I am jumping a queue a bit with this photo but I wanted to show you a slightly brighter scene from the Faroe Islands. It was not all darkness and gloom after all. After a couple of failed attempts in stormy weather, we finally made it to the beautiful village of Saksun on Streymoy on the second last day of our journey. I mentioned a little about the efforts to get a decent look in there when I posted Descending Gloom a few weeks ago. I am all for exploring in all sorts of weather but sometimes one has to let go and try again another day if possible. The last two days or so during our stay we had clear weather and we tried to cram as much sightseeing as possible into that short time. We travelled back and forth across the islands and I am glad we had the time to return to Saksun along the way.

These old turf houses are the main point of interest in the village itself. They looked magnificent and we appreciated the sun peeking out for a change to give them some lovely light. Surrounding landscape was not too bad either! That is of course another reason for coming to this part of the world. The scenery is breathtaking, no matter whether it is a sunny or a rainy day. We did not have too much time to explore further (I made it down to the lagoon later on) so I settled on the classic composition with the houses as the main subject.

The afternoon light was just right, still filtered a bit through the clouds so not too harsh and contrasty. That allowed to achieve a nice balance between highlights and shadows. I did have to bracket exposures to blend in the detail of the sky as there was just no way to cover the entire dynamic range in one frame. Colours were lovely too with greens just starting to turn yellow and orange in the early stages of autumn. The mountains made a great 'v' shape in the background to reveal the sky and that shape was mirrored by the lagoon. I liked the touches of dappled light on the mountains as well, which broke up the shadows and created additional dimension to the scene.

I did go for a quick walk down to the lagoon afterwards but the view of the village was the best from this side in my opinion. There are waterfalls in the area (behind me as I was facing this view) and there are also hikes over the mountains that we would love to explore further one day. This might be one of those cliché kind of views that are very popular but the reason for their popularity is that they are indeed beautiful. We always try to see a mix of popular and less discovered spots during our travels. Iconic landscapes and views are what attracts us to a location in the first place but then there are gems hidden away from the popular paths.

This location has become almost too popular in fact. I know of stories of angry land owners chasing tourists away because they trespassed onto their properties in pursuit of the perfect instagram shot. There is one house in particular further down the slope towards the lagoon that has been a favourite of many instagrammers but it requires walking through a private field to get there. Most people will respect the privacy of the owners but there are always ones that will spoil it by trying to go just that much further without consideration for others and for surrounding nature. Luckily we kept to the tracks and roads away from private properties so we did not encounter any negative behaviour from anyone.

I do hope that if the world ever returns to some kind of "normal" after the pandemic, we will find a way to still be able to travel and see the world while protecting the planet and respecting others wherever we go. If not, then little gems such as Saksun may be lost to us and that would be a real shame.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 1/30 second F/8.0 ISO 100 27 mm

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