There are thousands upon thousands of waterfalls in Iceland, from trickling runnels to thundering rents in the earth.
My longstanding dream of circumnavigating the Icelandic ring road had stops to climb into and around what felt like hundreds of those falls as I drove wild and free all over the country. In shoulder season, most of the cascades are tempered... there's enough drizzling rain to swell them, but not to the explosive levels the glacial melt runoff of the summers bring. Somewhere around the fifth day on the road, I came to Goðafoss — the waterfall of the gods. The expansive, roaring ringed wall of water is one of the largest in the county, and the sound and river approach to the falls was much different to many of the hikes I'd taken previously. Here, the water was turbulent, driven by the wind and the immense pressure of the falls, and the hike along the river was wild and frightening with a presence that many of the others hadn't possessed. Small drops and heavy rapids led for kilometers towards the main bowl of the falls.
Stinging mist swirled on wind currents, and the surface of the water shifted in hue, over hidden rocks, and sporadically with the will of the gusts.
Picking my way through areas where the water was only ankle high but swift enough to pull me off my feet, I marveled at the kaleidoscopic effect. (And also that there was a path with a bridge right above me that I totally missed.) I wanted to take those colors and sinuous curves and smooth them out into something that matched the soft glow of the filtered grey light, so I did my best to prop myself and my tripod up in the wind and long expose the turbulence. These are some of the only long exposures from my entire trip, since I lost my neutral density filter almost falling to my death further along the ring road. (If you want to read my real-time travel logs from the journey, you can find them here and work backwards.)
Something about the way they turned out really speaks to me, especially since they present the area so dramatically differently from what you would perceive standing there on the edge of the roiling foam.
Contrasting these smooth, glowing shots with the ones of the unsoftened water, frozen in violent motion, are very different perspectives on the same beauty.
Continuing up the cut widened by the power of the river, I kept an eye out for a way to climb up the cliffs to find the waterfall powering these images. I promise, when we get there, it's going to be worth it.
These photos and words are my own work, inspired by travels all over this pretty blue marble of ours. I hope you like them. 🌶️
Such a well written piece - this is really a good example of travel writing! Your personal interaction with the landscape is lovely. I like the collage you made, which captures some of the essence, colour and mood of what you were trying to pin down.
Thank you so much! When I first got to steem, I had this desire to grab people and put them where I was... So I rarely show me or people in these posts. I always hope to describe things as they happened and pair it with views to allow someone to feel more like it was their experience and memory as much as mine. I'm hoping to be able to use up and coming tech like Dlux to start building more immersive experiences! I have a lot less time now with witnessing and steem community, but I'm not going to let these little adventures go entirely...
These photos look like they were taken on a different planet :) The landscapes is rough - just stones and water. It's impressive. It must be a pleasure and a photographer dream to stand there and take photos. In some cases even risk their life (like you did :))
My favorite would be the last one. Water is crystal clear and I'm sure you can even drink it without getting poisoned :)
Thank you for sharing and have a great day!
Thank you! you're exactly right... In my travel log, I mention how bizarre the island is. The rocks that are everywhere often look like a moonscape or a frozen bed of seaweed or something like that. It's different than many places I've been so far in a really intriguing way, even other islands. It might be one of the most beautiful places on this planet I've been so far, though~
God damn. These photos are making me absolutely moist.
I did a giggle spit take. Now, I too am moist.
Hell yeah. Moisty boys and girls all up in this bitch. I don't fuck with people who are dry, that shit is icky and gross, dood.
ded
Man I swear, you take some of the most beautiful photo's I have ever seen. These are just so inspiring!
Thank you! I still feel a bit like 'jack of all trades, master of none,' but this is initially what drew me to steem in the first place. I just want to take people on trips all over the planet to places they might not get to see otherwise.
Awesome shots @crimsonclad! I’d love to visit Iceland someday soon
Posted using Partiko iOS
Thank you! Eventually I'm going to have to replace that poor filter. As for Iceland, I'll tell anyone who asks... I'd go back in a heartbeat (I do hope to) but go in shoulder season! It's so worth it, even though most guides suggest summer.
!dramatoken
Hahaha 😁
You've got
DRAMA!To view or trade
DRAMAgo to steem-engine.com.Goddamn woman, the place is incredible gorgeous and your photos are able to make it even better! How u you get that effect of smooth water? Is it by leaving the shutter open more time?
Thank you, and basically, yes! A few seconds and you get the long water streaks like that. I used a neutral density filter, which is like a black sheet of glass that fits over your lens. It helps you to not blow out your images by over exposing them when the shutter is open a long time, and also to even out the light off of things that reflect it too brightly, like water or broad light surfaces.
I bought it specifically for Iceland, to learn how to use it, and then almost immediately lost it a day or so after taking these because I tripped and fell and nearly ended up going over a cliff myself. These are some of the only long water shots I took in a country FULL of water, lol. Someday I'll get another, but it traumatised me a little bit. Thanks 🖤
This is like erotic photography:
The river is wet.
The rock is really hard.
The girl with the camera posts the photos online to earn money.
Are you trying to get a rise out of me? At yeast you kept it suggestive and not downright crusty.
awkward silence
crickets
bread puns
Well I can see you're all buttered up and ready. I could say something cheesy on top of this, but I ham going to leave it be.
That is some awesome and rough terrain!
Let's just gloss over the fact that if I had gone about thirty feet over from where I started picking my way down into the canyon, there would have been a smooth, easy walking path to take 😂 x
Never the easy way, right? LOL
Nice pictures!!
Thanks 🖤 Someday I'll replace the filter and we'll see if it was just a one off 😅
Oh Iceland, I miss you so much!
Very beautiful waterfall my friend . This is so naturally beautiful. Good one.
Posted using Partiko Android
What a cool photo captions you shared friend
cheers! thanks for popping by~
¡Stunning photos!
Terrific photos and travelogue. The pictures would make a decor collection or a desktop photos series.
Thanks so much! I've actually thought about releasing them for people to use however, or to maybe get a steem based store together so people could order them for their own walls or whatever. Sharing these kinds of thing are my great passion, so it really makes me happy to know you found your way through to take a look at them well after they were "current" 🖤
Or… you could mount and matte them (and maybe frame them too) and sell them at a local art festival or a café that sells artists work (for a cut).
Congratulations, Your Post Has Been Added To The Steemit Worldmap!
Author link: http://steemitworldmap.com?author=crimsonclad
Post link: http://steemitworldmap.com?post=soft-water-soft-light-softly-approaching-godafoss
Want to have your post on the map too?
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here
Hiya, @itchyfeetdonica here. I just curated your post to our daily Travel Digest #453 and upvoted it through @steemitworldmap. If you enjoy what we do, consider supporting us by:
Vote for the Daily Traveldigest
Follow our curation trail
Delegate Steempower
The more support we get, the more we can give back! :)
Thanks for the mention! I'm a big Worldmap fan. I've been a long time delegator and trail voter~ thanks for all you do 🖤
good god these are awesome!!! you always find the best locations!
Hello!
This post has been manually curated, resteemed
and gifted with some virtually delicious cake
from the @helpiecake curation team!
Much love to you from all of us at @helpie!
Keep up the great work!
Congratulations @crimsonclad! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click here to view your Board
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPVote for @Steemitboard as a witness and get one more award and increased upvotes!
Sadly, beautiful nature like that tends to make me !sneeze
You have been infected by the King of Disease!
Will you quarantine yourself?
Or will you spread the plague?
Very impressive photos and prose, this is a delight to my ears and my eyes.
Thank you
Posted using Partiko iOS
You should post in the Creative Coin Community on Steem Engine. If your to busy traveling maybe I could post them as a dual author post and split the rewards with you?
Posted using Partiko iOS
These are insane Crim!! So stunningly beautiful ❤️
Thanks for commenting~ I had given you a payout, but of course it was summarily removed. I remember back when this particular botnet was used for curation and the betterment of the platform and I used to have mad respect for the creator despite our ideological differences, instead of for petty attempts at censorship hilariously and ironically while trying to evade censorship. Keep on keeping on. Eventually the realization will dawn that you don't care, that it's not 'saving' any value or stopping you from being heard... what a magical concept!
Haha! Thanks and I couldn’t have said it better myself. I do feel bad that people are wasting vp to try to make them visible, as the design is pretty genius to never let that happen. So just a quick message with a thank you but don’t waste your vp on it was an easy fix 😉
The beauty of the blockchain is my comments are still here and it doesn’t stop me from curating or anything else for that matter, so I’ll just keep doing my thing.
Thanks for being you my dear ❤️ And seriously your photography is awe inspiring. Glad to see you posting 🤗