LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk | Section Jokulsarlon outlet beach icebergs in surf photographer's perspective, the springtime midnight sun means that sunsets and sunrises and their brilliant colors can last for hours, not minutes, as the sun dips at such a shallow angle into the horizon. While everyone has their own favorite locations, I've observed some clear winners in my photo groups. Jökulsárlón is a glacier lagoon filled with icebergs, with an outlet into the nearby ocean. Here on Breiðarmerkursandur beach, thousands of glittering icebergs of all shapes and sizes, line the black sand beach. Nowhere else is such a stunning scene so accessible. Photographing the scene can be overwhelming, as it's nearly impossible to convey with a camera the awe and scale of the epic scene before our eyes. Every time I go back there, the tides have broken apart or deposited more chunks of ice flowing out from Jökulsárlón, so that what we see one day will vanish to nature the next. In the winter months only, the Aurora Borealis displays of green and reddish glowing curtains of light in the northern night sky are awesome; everyone should see that at least once in a lifetime. To photograph the Northern Lights, a longer than usual exposure of 15-30 seconds helps bring out the colors more vividly than one sees with the naked eye. At first, night photographers find it a bit difficult to get their focus, composition, and a dozen other technical settings right in the dark, and sometimes simply put down the camera to enjoy the displays of light overhead. In addition to the Aurora Borealis, the ice caves formed under the terminus of some of the glaciers off the Vatnajökull icecap are my favorite winter sights. Otherworldly blue faceted rooms of ice are a photographer's dream and any traveler's definition of an epic location. Formed in the warmer summer months when the glaciers are melting fast, the ice caves are only accessible and stable in colder temperatures when everything refreezes. Blue glacial ice comes from deep within the glacier where air has been compressed out of the ice, whereas the whitish, more crumbly ice most people associate with glaciers is the uncompressed surface layer. Each group I lead through Iceland is blessed with many varied photographic opportunities that change with the seasons and weather, yet everyone traveling there is impressed by the landscape and country; no one comes away empty-handed. Another favorite summer destination of photographers is the Landmannalaugar region, where braided glacial rivers flow through black lava plains and lush green moss coats black cinder cones. In some places with countless layers of gray and blue it feels as though we are on the moon. Another Highland destination also known for its colorful geothermal hills is Kerlingarfjöll off the Kjölur 4x4 route, where intrepid hikers can walk among steaming hillsides. These have been some of my experiences with Iceland and why I love it so. It's a wonderful and still-wild country. It has changed a little with the recent influx of tourism, but one can still find solitude and open expanses in raw Iceland. It's a place that, like the Adirondacks, grows on you the longer you wander through it. Each time I visit Iceland, I learn and find something new. Many places in the world remind me of one another, but not so in unique Iceland. Iceland offers many unique sights and other more familiar ones with a distinctive Icelandic twist. For instance, the English common noun "geyser" originated from Iceland's famous Geysir spouting hot spring. However, unlike the geysers in Yellowstone National Park in the USA, where visitors must stay a safe distance away, in Iceland a laissezfaire attitude prevails, and you can stand mere meters away from the eruptions. LOCALadk Magazine Summer 2013 33

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