105 days Europe Adventure

[BrownBoots]

#88 Skógafoss, South Iceland.
This was taken at the third and final visit to Skógafoss before we bid farewell and continue our journey eastward. Unfortunately, it was raining on each of our visit and on the third, it was decided that there's no way I'm going to leave without a single satisfactory image of Skógafoss. Whenever there was a break in the rain, I would rush to set up the camera & tripod only for the rain to return before I had time to release the shutter.

This frustrating routine went on for a couple of times before I finally gave up, leaving the setup in the rain with a ziploc bag over the camera before returning to rest in the car, cursing the weather as I laid in the driver's seat. Patience finally paid off as the rain clouds broke momentarily, leaving just enough time to make the envisioned image and pack up.
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[supmylo]

Hi . your patience and determination is something not for everyone .
I am sure its not an easy trip but I believe you enjoyed it ,
and is rewarded with the nice photos and moments you manage to capture .
Keep it up .
Thanks for sharing .

 

[BrownBoots]

#89 Sigríðastaðaós, North Western Iceland.
A short walk from a farmhouse turned hostel where we stayed, brought us to the black beach west of Sigríðastaðaós. A chat with the hostel owner who actually still works as a farmer, revealed that all the neighboring land as far as the naked eye can see, belonged to his family. However, he only farmed a small part of the land in the summer due to the difficulty of cultivating crops under such harsh climate. Converting his farmhouse to a hostel enabled him to survive on the much needed additional income as well as meeting travelers from over the world.

This image shot at 11pm with the sun moving westward beyond the fog-shrouded mountains in the distance. The little red hut is a nesting place for the birds, which the owner requested us to keep a distance from, in order not to frighten them.
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[BrownBoots]

Hi . your patience and determination is something not for everyone .
I am sure its not an easy trip but I believe you enjoyed it ,
and is rewarded with the nice photos and moments you manage to capture .
Keep it up .
Thanks for sharing .

Hi supmylo, thanks for the encouragement. I guess my stubborn nature played a huge role in attaining that patience and determination attributes. :bsmilie:

 

[asterixsg]

Lovely images and the one of Skógafoss is a classic. Very well done and your perseverance sure paid off :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Truly inspiring thread. Glad its a sticky.

 

[BrownBoots]

Lovely images and the one of Skógafoss is a classic. Very well done and your perseverance sure paid off :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Truly inspiring thread. Glad its a sticky.

Thanks asterix, too bad I wasn't fortunate enough to see the stunning double rainbow at Skógafoss like you did. That was simply awesome.

 

[BrownBoots]

#90 Road 864, North Iceland.
The weather was not too bad when we first made the turn from the Ring Road northward onto 864, the road leading to the east bank of the famed Dettifoss and Selfoss. The gravel road was sparsely covered with light snow, not the type of condition I was expecting in late May but we drove on since it wasn't too difficult to negotiate the snow on our little 2WD car.

Halfway through, the snow got heavier and every hump of snow seemed bigger than the previous until we eventually got stuck in one of the deeper patch. 8:30pm, the start of another unforgettable 6hr ordeal in the blizzard that was to keep us from getting too bored... Image taken along Road 864 shortly before the sudden onset of heavy snowfall that had us trapped.
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[droozy]

Wooo ! Me still around to snoope yr NICE salivating pics ! ^^

 

[BrownBoots]

Wooo ! Me still around to snoope yr NICE salivating pics ! ^^

hey bro, glad you're still enjoying the pics.

 

[BrownBoots]

#91 Lake Mývatn, North Iceland.
Situated in the vicinity west of Krafla, Lake Mývatn translates as Midges' Lake in Icelandic, stemmed from the swarms of irritating midges found here in the summer season. The lake and it's surrounding wetlands, however, are home to many birds, ducks and interesting fauna as well as larva pillars.
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[BrownBoots]

#92 Gullfoss, South Western Iceland.
We were to spent the night in the car parked at the Gullfoss carpark. The wind was mighty strong, sending the spray from the waterfall over the area like it was raining. Armed with my trusty ziploc bag, I waited until the wind took the spray away from my direction before unleashing my image-hungry cam onto the scene. Thus, the rushing brown water from the upper tier of Gullfoss fell prey as the first victim of the night.
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[frustrato]

hey man awesome pictures. can i ask u what's the best way to get to lofoten? n by best meaning cheapest haha

 

[BrownBoots]

hey man awesome pictures. can i ask u what's the best way to get to lofoten? n by best meaning cheapest haha

Thanks for visiting the thread and welcome to CS!

Oslo is the gateway to northern Norway from which there are a few ways of getting to Lofoten, the cheapest being the NSB overnight train to Bodo followed by a ferry to Moskenes. The discounted 'minipris' train tickets must be booked early to avoid paying the full fare.

Links for the train & ferry websites below:

http://www.nsb.no/

http://www.thn.no/english/default.aspx

Hope these helps.

 

[edutilos-]

Some very beautiful gems here. Well worth the effort. My personal preference is to have a wee bit less saturation though (for some of the pictures), and I do love many shots here, but there seems to be a consistent tendency to overfilter, leading to an output where the sky is darker than other parts of the picture when it is the source of light. Still, thanks for sharing, much enjoyed, and much envied.

 

[BrownBoots]

Some very beautiful gems here. Well worth the effort. My personal preference is to have a wee bit less saturation though (for some of the pictures), and I do love many shots here, but there seems to be a consistent tendency to overfilter, leading to an output where the sky is darker than other parts of the picture when it is the source of light. Still, thanks for sharing, much enjoyed, and much envied.

Hi edutilos, very much appreciate your C&C here and glad you enjoyed them despite the flaws.

Wholly agree some of the pictures could do with a little less saturation. Some scenes can get me over-excited at times to forget to re-adjust the in-cam jpeg settings to compensate certain lighting conditions, resulting in slight over saturated images. Would definitely bring these values down slightly if I do pp them.

I'm too aware of the overfilter issue especially in some stacking situations, which could be solved if I had 2 filters of the same stop. Since I don't, I ended up using another one of a stop stronger than it should be. In some other situations which the sky exposure lies between the stops, I chose to go say 2/3 stronger to over-emphasis on the mood rather than 1/3 weaker and lose it, as dramatic skies are part of my primary 'diet'. Having said that, these should all be fine-tuned by pp to achieve that perfect shot, thus overcoming the limitations of physical filters. Please pardon my 'laziness' for the rest of the coming images. :bsmilie:

Thanks so much for the input and hope to see you around for more.

 

[frustrato]

omg thanks man, they sure did. i'm going norway next week with my friends u see. it was a rather spontaneous decision cause of the cheap promotion to oslo that qatar airways is offering. so honestly we are trying to dig up as much information as possible in this short span of time. rather than having to spend our time there in the city-esque life of oslo, we are hoping we'd get to see the natural beautiesnorway has to offer as proved from your spectacular photos. if u don't mind, is there any other form of more convenient ways i can contact u rather than through here? cos there are a million questions regarding your trip there that i'd love to ask

 

[BrownBoots]

omg thanks man, they sure did. i'm going norway next week with my friends u see. it was a rather spontaneous decision cause of the cheap promotion to oslo that qatar airways is offering. so honestly we are trying to dig up as much information as possible in this short span of time. rather than having to spend our time there in the city-esque life of oslo, we are hoping we'd get to see the natural beautiesnorway has to offer as proved from your spectacular photos. if u don't mind, is there any other form of more convenient ways i can contact u rather than through here? cos there are a million questions regarding your trip there that i'd love to ask

Hi frustrato, the beauty of nature in Norway is indeed worth the effort to undertake the long journey up north.

PMed you about the contact.

 

[BrownBoots]

#93 Gullfoss, South Western Iceland.
The lower tier of Gullfoss features the main cascade of 'the Golden Falls' plunging furiously into the deep canyon of the Hvítá river. Truly a sight to behold.
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[BrownBoots]

#94 Sarkofagen, Svalbard.
Took a tough mountain hike in the realm of North Pole to challenge our endurance and ability in combating the harsh freezing environment. Here, one cannot leave the town on any hike or expedition without an armed guide due to the polar bear threat. Pictured here was our hiking guide with a high-powered rifle strapped to her back during the ascent to Sarkofagen, a mountain near the main settlement of Longyearbyen.
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[Zichar]

Nice, snowshoeing ... how was it?
Looks like fresh powder... and looks chillingly cold!