Nomadic Vision

Posts Tagged ‘Iceland’

In trying to craft up the usual “best of” photo list for the year that just past, I found myself reminiscing over great travel experiences, rather than actual images. As such, I thought it would be better to create a list of our favourite travel experiences from 2011.

The travel year for us started with a trip to Prague in February. It was the coldest weather Tina and I have ever experienced, but the cold weather helped kept the crowds away. The weather also complimented the atmospheric city perfectly. In a week full of highlights, our best experience was the day trip to Kutna Hora. The old town had many silver mines and once competed with Prague. The town has “former glory” written everywhere and is a fantastically atmospheric, haunted town.

Our next trip was a short drive to the university town of Cambridge. Almost anyone who has visited the town would recommend a punting tour along the river. We had a student from South Africa guiding our boat and he was full of humorous information about the town and its’ university.

April began with a 18 day trip through Italy. Despite facing stiff competition from Tuscanny, Lake Como and Venice, our favourite Italian experience had to be staying in Vernazza in the Cinque Terra. Arguably the most picturesque of the Cinque Terra villages, Vernazza oozes rural Italian charm with its colourful houses built impossibly into the side of the cliff.

After a two month break from travel, July started off with a trip to Iceland. This was another trip full of highlights, but topping it off was an hour of mind blowing light over Jökulsárlón, the famed Ice Lagoon. For most of the hour, our only company was a group of seals swimming up and down the lagoon. Surrounded by ice, black sand beaches, mountains, 5 glaciers and magical light made for one of the most memorable scenes of my life.

From Iceland we flew to Slovenia. The country is possibly Europe’s most under rated travel destinations and is a good blend of Italy, Austria and Switzerland. Lake Bohinj in the Julian Alps is the perfect location to make the most of the summer heat. The shoreline could easily be mistaken for Thailand, with the exception of the magnificent view of the Julian Alps in the background. As the rivers feeding the lake from snow runoff, the summer mornings are characterized my misty sunrises, creating a mystical light display.

We took a train from Slovenia to Venice where the 40+ degree heat was almost unbearable. At the very end of the Venice trip we experienced an often overlooked island – Burano. Known for its colourful homes and lacework, the island draws fewer crowds then Venice but is every bit as charming.

Back home in London, an Indian summer during the “should have been much colder” autumn reminded us that some of the best travel experiences can happen on your front door. An afternoon of street photography along the South Bank spent with Warren Scott showed why London is still one of the most interesting cities in the world and provided the inspiration for a photo project that would keep me busy for the reminder of the year.

To make the most of the autumn colour, we took a one week holiday around the fjords of Norway. It’s rare that a physical activity should be a highlight, but the hike up to Pulpit Rock and back surpassed all our expectations.

In December, we reached Koh Samui after 30 hours of travelling. After taking a day to recover from the flight and the jet lag, we were surprised to find the markets of Koh Samui to be so enjoyable, especially when expecting a relaxing week on a tropical beach. The Fisherman Village in Boput providing us with the most memorable food and drinks we’ve had whilst traveling.

I'm still processing pictures from Thailand and haven't prepared any from the Fisherman's Village. Instead, here is a picture of Tina enjoying Lamai Beach in Koh Samui.

From Koh Samui we flew to Thailand’s cultural capital, Chiang Mai. In a city that kept us permanently busy and entertained, it’s difficult to choose a highlight but if pressed, I would say the craziness of New Years eve with the many different fireworks randomly going off across crowds of people coupled with thousands of floating lanterns would be hard to beat.

So after a memorable year of travel in 2011, I look forward to what this year brings. We start with a trip to Provence, France in February then South Africa in April. Our entire summer looks like it will be spent in Canada. We have a loose plan to tour Vietnam over Christmas. Apart from those destinations, our travel plans are wide open.

You may have noticed things have been a bit quiet here lately. Part of the problem I have being a travel photography blogger is that I travel. August is usually the busiest time for me travel wise, which explains the lack of posts. Our next trip (Norway) is only in October, so in between sorting, editing and processing the 5000+ images from our trip, I predict frequent posts.

During this recent trip we revisited Iceland and got blessed with great light almost every day – a far cry from the 17 days of rain we experienced the previous year.

The beauty and drama of the Ice Lagoon

We searched to no avail for blue eyed ponies during our first trip, only to find two of them during our second trip

After Iceland we visited Slovenia, spending most of our time at the lakes and ending at a coastal town called Piran. Slovenia exceeded all my expectations and must surely rank as one of Europe’s most beautiful countries. I cannot wait to go back, especially to the lakes.

Lake Bohinj is the wilder of the two lakes and has a reputation for morning fog, perfect for photography.

A magical island church and adventure sports are Lake Bled's claim to fame.

Being so close to Venice gives Piran a Venetian flavour in both food and architecture.

Piran lies opposite Venice making it a quick two hour trip to Venice via train. Due to its proximity, we decided to end in Venice which proved to be the perfect ending for a great trip, topped off by a visit to Burano, a colourful Venetian island.

Colourful Burano is a visual assault in all the right ways.

When in Venice, visit the Rialto Bridge, my personal favourite Venice spot.

We got to see the fascinating glass sculpturing process in Murano, another Venetian island.

Thanks for checking back here – I hope to have a few informative, lengthy posts up soon.

Most photographs take the majority of their images using automatic or semi automatic exposure mode (aperture priority). Even those using manual exposure mode use the built in camera meter to get a base exposure. The problem with using any of these modes is that the camera averages the exposure for medium grey. In other words, if the scene was converted to black and white and completely blurred, it would look similar to the image above – perfectly between black and white.

This trend is made even more pronounced in post production where we try bring out as much detail as possible in an image, flattening out highlights and shadows.

Whilst the medium grey approach provides a good starting point for exposures – I recently discovered the value of moving away from medium grey. Compare the following two images:

I created the first image a year ago where I was under the impression that more detail is better. Notice how much brighter the foreground image in the top photo is in comparison the the bottom image. Although the top half of both images have roughly the same exposure value, the darker foreground of the bottom image helps bring out depth, contrast and colour, making it a far more appealing image. The top image is closer to the original exposure where I’ve deliberately darkened the foreground of the lower image – making the image “imperfect” in order to make it more visually pleasing.

We’re off to Iceland and Slovenia for a month – I’m going to be looking very carefully at the way I exposure and process the images.

By the way, I’ve joined 500px. If you’re keen on adding me as a contact, here is my profile.

Fog drifting in from the ocean covers the headland and nearby mountains

We feature places to visit on this blog because the place stood out to us and we know that readers would benefit from visiting the place too.

Occasionally, we feature a well known location, but most often, this section is reserved for lesser known spots that deserve more attention then what they’re getting. We love spots that are interesting, surprising, authentic and un-crowded.

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Iceland - Seljalandsfoss

Iceland. Just that word brings up imagery usually only seen in a Peter Jackson movie. Giant glaciers, active volcanoes and steep mountains all bathed in arctic light and all of it very dramatic. Iceland is a Mecca for nature photographers, offering sites found nowhere else in the world.

I started planning my trip to Iceland over 6 years ago. As a budding landscape photographer, the Luminous Landscape was a constant source of inspiration and information. Sometime 6 years ago, the website author, Michael Reichmann made his first trip to Iceland. He returned to post an article that had tantalized and tormented me every day I wasn’t able to see Iceland myself.

A few weeks ago all that changed. Armed with a bit more skill and better equipment then I had 6 years ago, Tina and I left sunny London for a trip around Iceland. What follows is a part travel, part photography report of what must be one of the most photogenic countries in the world.

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For the last 17 days, I’ve been living a long time dream – a trip to Iceland. Generally speaking, reality never quite lives up to the expectations of a dream. This was not the case in Iceland. It is a landscape that is impossible to prepare your expectations. There is no other place on earth that I can compare to Iceland. It is a spectacularly beautiful, wild country.

I’m off to Croatia in a few hours, so I don’t have the time to write a trip report, but watch this space, Iceland will be the source of many a post to come.

Here are a few random pictures from Iceland in the interim.

Congratulations to Kristján Jóhann for winning this week’s travel photo of the week with his fascinating take of the Northern Lights over Staumur, Iceland.

Why this Photo Won

I had a difficult time choosing a winner this week with so many different entries that could have won. This specific image stuck out in my mind for a little longer than the others though. I’ve always been fascinated by the Northern Lights and long to shoot them. Everytime a see a picture of the lights, I’m mostly dissapointed with the picture. The lights normally look fantastic, but the foreground leaves a lot to be desired.

Kristjan, however, managed to capture the lights very well and also managed to have a compelling foreground. I love the lead in road throug the snow and the reflection in the lake.

About the Competition

To enter this weekly travel photography competition you will need to be a flickr user. Once you’re a member of flickr, search for the group – Nomadic Vision and join it. Any photos posted into the group will automatically be entered into the competition.

The winner is announced on this site as well as the flickr group page.