Our little group ended up with a day in Reykjavik in the middle of our trip. It happened to be the day of an exhibition of Polish children's literature, part of an Iceland festival called Design March. The literature on display included award winning illustrators who Junko know from her time in Poland, so I tagged along to see the exhibit and the cultural center where it was held. The shuttered windows on the lower level captivated me -- I was quite entertained photographing the window with the shutters in various positions. Jim picked this one as his favorite as it hints that there is something beyond. Processed using Nik Silver Efex.
Thank you for your amazing response to the "Lava" Mountain shot -- I so appreciate it!
And no news on LR recovery. I'm about ready to just start fresh but the tech guys suggested one more appointment to try out a few more ideas -- not til next Tuesday though, so am practicing patience which is not my normal approach! Thanks for all your well wishes!
Love the angles and shadows. Thinking of the children's book exhibition -a friend took me into Suffolk to a winery for lunch and to look round their great farm/gift shop. There was a book room there and I spent more than I should have, including an old favourite set in Poland at the end of WWII!
My eye is drawn to the bar supports - they seem quite hefty! Just what are they afraid will burst through that window? I get a sense of menace lurking...
@Taffy@jyokota I am really enjoying your pictures of Iceland (in fact all of your travel pictures. I love that you travel together and enjoy your different perspectives on the things you see. I am super excited to be heading to Iceland on May 6 for 10 days. I am hoping to take lots of pictures and re-ignite my picture taking. I discovered last year that I take an inordinate number of pictures of flowers and bugs so the landscapes (of which there seem to be plenty!) will be a challenge for me. My dream is to see the northern lights in the arctic (or close to) but I think I will be too late for that. A friend and I are driving the ring road and hope to do some hiking enroute. I wondered if you had any travel tips - clothing to have, places not to miss, photos to be taken etc. We will be independent so are figuring things out on our own.
@sheilaj
Hi Sheila, How wonderful you are going to Iceland!! And exciting to be doing the Ring Road trip on your own. We had a guide for the entire trip, so I'm not a great resource re advice on places. I will say that using a book like Lonely Planet will be helpful (and road signs are well marked for the main sites), so you will be good to go. Be prepared to simply stop along the way as almost everywhere you look, it's photo-worthy. You'll want to stay aware of timing -- tour buses seem most active mid morning to mid-afternoon. We started the Golden Circle tour about 1:00 in the afternoon so for example, at the geyser for sunset, there were about 8 people instead of 3 - 5 bus loads. We loved the mountains in the photo I posted yesterday. There's a fee of about $8.00 as it's private land, but so worth it, don't miss it if you can get there! And late afternoon was a good time for that area for sunset photos there and also on the drive back.
Re clothing, it will be warmer when you are there so keep that in mind. The BEST thing I had with me were rain pants and waterproof parka with removable down liner that also served as a separate jacket. Take layers...base layer, turtleneck, polartech pullover, down vest, lightweight down jacket, and parka. You won't need them at the same time, but conditions vary considerably from sunrise to sunset, from glacier area and to beach. There were times I was fine in a turtleneck and other times when multiple layers paid off. Umbrellas are handy, but mostly you want rain jacket and pants. Poncho not helpful because so many areas are really windy (when we were there). Take quick-drying clothes and wash out every few nights. There is a lot of packing and unpacking and it was good we all thought that we had packed minimally. It will be warmer, of course, so watch temps close to the time you're leaving and make your decisions based on that. Wear comfortable waterproof shoes. I had one pair and wore them daily, and a second pair of shoes for at night going to dinner or for long rides in the car (but the latter, most of the time I changed to hiking shoes even in the car because of the photo ops along the way to photo ops!). You don't need any clothes for 'nicer' restaurants. It's very casual there -- everyone wears their hiking type clothes even at dinner.
It's very expensive there for food ($5.00 or more for hot chocolate/coffee/tea; candy bar starts around $5.00 and it wasn't unusual to see them for $13.00 in hotel). Water is wonderful so bring a water bottle to avoid buying bottles along the way. We also brought tea and thermoses, and then just added hot water at hotel. I would suggest bringing granola bars and granola so you can buy yogurt or something for b'fast. B'fast in the hotels was typically a $30.00 buffet. No option for anything else. If included in your hotel, that's the best. Think about what you might eat for lunch. When we stopped at restaurants along the way, even those that looked like diners, it was often $18.00 for a bowl of soup, for example. Very expensive but totally accessible. If you can pack a small insulated lunch bag, that would allow you access to lunch along the way and snacks and then you would only have dinners (again, mostly pretty expensive even in 'inexpensive' types of restaurants.
I would only spend one day in Reykjavik to see the church and wander the streets and harbor area, and go to the Harpa music hall. If you have more time there, you can find other interesting buildings, but Iceland is all about the landscapes.
Take a wide angle lens and a telephoto -- birds may be returning when you are there. And we saw reindeer which the telephoto was critical for capturing. I didn't use my 50mm at all. It was wide or telephoto for the most part. Junko used her 85mm occasionally. I used my 14-24 and my 28-300 only. Also no need to bring external flash, from my experience.
Ice caves will be closed, but if you are hiking on glaciers, you may want to pack crampons. We bought them there at a truck stop, so if you need them you can always get them there.
Northern lights are amazing to photograph but we would not have been able to identify them without our guide, except at one hotel where they had a northern lights 'alert'. I can't recommend our guide highly enough...it may be worth seeing if he is available for a day/evening when you are in the Selfoss area...just a thought if the Aurora activity is high. We didn't have to track it as he did that for us.
We rented a backup camera body. I was glad I did as I ended up just having one lens on each body...very convenient (but make sure you can attach both bodies to your tripod -- I didn't think of that so had to switch lenses more than I'd wanted to when using the tripod).
Tripod is a must, even during the day, for waterfalls which are plentiful and beautiful. If you have ND filters, take them along. If not, look into buying one before you go -- a "little stopper" as I didn't really need a "big stopper" which I had. We also have Conklin (?) filter system which came in handy. But likely a little stopper would do the job for you and it's less hassle.
Feel free to ask additional questions if there's anything I've missed. And Junko may have more to add.
Oh -- one last thing -- it can be VERY windy so keep your backpack on your back, and hold onto your tripod. They can easily be blown into the sea! @jyokota
@taffy@jyokota WOW! Thank you so much for the detailed response. This will be incredibly helpful. On the photography end, I have one small mirrorless with 17mm and 60 mm primes and a 12-50 kit lens. I think those are effectively 35, 120 and 24-100 in full format. I am afraid any reindeer pics will become a "where's Waldo" mystery game unless they choose to come right up to me. I will keep my backpack on so as not to replicate Junko's experience! The towns (and our accommodation ) seem to be far apart, so I suspect our timing on arriving at sites will be driven by the distance we have to travel that day, but I will do my best to be strategic. I am hoping that we are a bit ahead of the especially busy season. I have so much to learn about picture taking and don't do any post processing so it will be a challenge to get the amazing shots, but hey, there's nowhere to go but better. Thanks again for your thoughts and the time you took to share them. What's next on your itinerary?
@sheilaj You might look into renting from borrowlenses.com -- they are pretty reasonable compared to having to buy equipment. I think you'll really want the widest angle you can have and a telephoto. Just a thought!
Junko's traveling now, and Jim and and I head to France for 2 weeks, the last of the 'avoid the Chicago housing situation' trips for this past year.
Interesting image! Wonderful lines and angles! Thoroughly enjoyed reading your response to Sheila's request for Iceland travel trips. Very interesting information...and I'm not even traveling to Iceland, at least not in the near future. I'd love to travel there one day. Also . . . you are extremely kind and considerate to provide Sheila with such a detailed and lengthy response. That's quite impressive! :-)
@gaylewood Thanks for the kind comments. You would love Iceland...I hope you get to go sometime! I always am happy to help someone if asked -- I think almost everyone on this site is the same. I just thought about what I wish I had known before going, or was glad I'd guessed right about.
@sheilaj -- Everything @taffy already said well! I'd add the need for a super sturdy tripod. Our guide had his blow off a cliff into the ocean on a earlier trip. Taffy and I bought sturdy ones after we each had our first ones tip over with the camera attached. You're so lucky -- the PUFFINS will have returned form their Atlantic Ocean bobbing winter retreat!
@jyokota YIKES! I just bought a tripod, but it is a little lightweight one - thinking it would be good for traveling/hiking. It turns out that the lens rental place only delivers in the US so I am checking out Canadian sources. Did you and @taffy find that you needed much cash? I read somewhere that debit/credit is favoured over cash everywhere. Also - we arrive at 4:40 am!! Any suggestions on what to do at that time of day? It will be light.
@sheilaj We each cashed about $200 US in Iceland Kroner (add two zeroes for our conversation -- so if something cost 5000K, it was about $50.00). We had about $80.00 left because we'd used credit cards for everything almost.
You definitely need a heavier duty tripod! Junko is right on target about that!
If you are going to Reykjavik, just walk over to the Harbor or the church to take photographs in the early morning light. Then find a coffee shop (there are tons of them) and hang out a bit. There is also a large park and lake which we did not get to in the town, so you may look into where that is. It's a charming capitol city, and relatively small/navigable. There's a bus system but it seems not to be useful in the city as the streets are older and narrow. Probably you will get to your hotel with that arrival, about 6:00 a.m. The airport is about an hour out of the city. Breakfast usually starts about 6:30 each morning. Have fun!
Oh, and @Taffy and I did not get to go to the Blue Lagoon because you have to book your tickets in advance -- waaaayyyyy in advance. If you know for sure you want to go, we'd recommend booking as soon as you know your dates. It's somewhat close to the airport outside Reykjavik.
I like your play with rectangles and squares here, and I agree with Jim -- the suggestion of what may be beyond the slightly open window is intriguing. I'm so glad you got some "artistic" photos while I was busily looking at Polish Picturebooks so it was worth your time to visit, too! Btw, I saw Gosia (the artist) several times in Bologna.
April 8th, 2017
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Hi Sheila, How wonderful you are going to Iceland!! And exciting to be doing the Ring Road trip on your own. We had a guide for the entire trip, so I'm not a great resource re advice on places. I will say that using a book like Lonely Planet will be helpful (and road signs are well marked for the main sites), so you will be good to go. Be prepared to simply stop along the way as almost everywhere you look, it's photo-worthy. You'll want to stay aware of timing -- tour buses seem most active mid morning to mid-afternoon. We started the Golden Circle tour about 1:00 in the afternoon so for example, at the geyser for sunset, there were about 8 people instead of 3 - 5 bus loads. We loved the mountains in the photo I posted yesterday. There's a fee of about $8.00 as it's private land, but so worth it, don't miss it if you can get there! And late afternoon was a good time for that area for sunset photos there and also on the drive back.
Re clothing, it will be warmer when you are there so keep that in mind. The BEST thing I had with me were rain pants and waterproof parka with removable down liner that also served as a separate jacket. Take layers...base layer, turtleneck, polartech pullover, down vest, lightweight down jacket, and parka. You won't need them at the same time, but conditions vary considerably from sunrise to sunset, from glacier area and to beach. There were times I was fine in a turtleneck and other times when multiple layers paid off. Umbrellas are handy, but mostly you want rain jacket and pants. Poncho not helpful because so many areas are really windy (when we were there). Take quick-drying clothes and wash out every few nights. There is a lot of packing and unpacking and it was good we all thought that we had packed minimally. It will be warmer, of course, so watch temps close to the time you're leaving and make your decisions based on that. Wear comfortable waterproof shoes. I had one pair and wore them daily, and a second pair of shoes for at night going to dinner or for long rides in the car (but the latter, most of the time I changed to hiking shoes even in the car because of the photo ops along the way to photo ops!). You don't need any clothes for 'nicer' restaurants. It's very casual there -- everyone wears their hiking type clothes even at dinner.
It's very expensive there for food ($5.00 or more for hot chocolate/coffee/tea; candy bar starts around $5.00 and it wasn't unusual to see them for $13.00 in hotel). Water is wonderful so bring a water bottle to avoid buying bottles along the way. We also brought tea and thermoses, and then just added hot water at hotel. I would suggest bringing granola bars and granola so you can buy yogurt or something for b'fast. B'fast in the hotels was typically a $30.00 buffet. No option for anything else. If included in your hotel, that's the best. Think about what you might eat for lunch. When we stopped at restaurants along the way, even those that looked like diners, it was often $18.00 for a bowl of soup, for example. Very expensive but totally accessible. If you can pack a small insulated lunch bag, that would allow you access to lunch along the way and snacks and then you would only have dinners (again, mostly pretty expensive even in 'inexpensive' types of restaurants.
I would only spend one day in Reykjavik to see the church and wander the streets and harbor area, and go to the Harpa music hall. If you have more time there, you can find other interesting buildings, but Iceland is all about the landscapes.
Take a wide angle lens and a telephoto -- birds may be returning when you are there. And we saw reindeer which the telephoto was critical for capturing. I didn't use my 50mm at all. It was wide or telephoto for the most part. Junko used her 85mm occasionally. I used my 14-24 and my 28-300 only. Also no need to bring external flash, from my experience.
Ice caves will be closed, but if you are hiking on glaciers, you may want to pack crampons. We bought them there at a truck stop, so if you need them you can always get them there.
Northern lights are amazing to photograph but we would not have been able to identify them without our guide, except at one hotel where they had a northern lights 'alert'. I can't recommend our guide highly enough...it may be worth seeing if he is available for a day/evening when you are in the Selfoss area...just a thought if the Aurora activity is high. We didn't have to track it as he did that for us.
We rented a backup camera body. I was glad I did as I ended up just having one lens on each body...very convenient (but make sure you can attach both bodies to your tripod -- I didn't think of that so had to switch lenses more than I'd wanted to when using the tripod).
Tripod is a must, even during the day, for waterfalls which are plentiful and beautiful. If you have ND filters, take them along. If not, look into buying one before you go -- a "little stopper" as I didn't really need a "big stopper" which I had. We also have Conklin (?) filter system which came in handy. But likely a little stopper would do the job for you and it's less hassle.
Feel free to ask additional questions if there's anything I've missed. And Junko may have more to add.
Oh -- one last thing -- it can be VERY windy so keep your backpack on your back, and hold onto your tripod. They can easily be blown into the sea!
@jyokota
Junko's traveling now, and Jim and and I head to France for 2 weeks, the last of the 'avoid the Chicago housing situation' trips for this past year.
You definitely need a heavier duty tripod! Junko is right on target about that!
If you are going to Reykjavik, just walk over to the Harbor or the church to take photographs in the early morning light. Then find a coffee shop (there are tons of them) and hang out a bit. There is also a large park and lake which we did not get to in the town, so you may look into where that is. It's a charming capitol city, and relatively small/navigable. There's a bus system but it seems not to be useful in the city as the streets are older and narrow. Probably you will get to your hotel with that arrival, about 6:00 a.m. The airport is about an hour out of the city. Breakfast usually starts about 6:30 each morning. Have fun!