All images © 2007-2013 Aaron Meyers
After 7 straight days of being wet I can’t even begin to describe how great a feeling it was to arrive at Godafoss and to be *dry*. Even getting this close to the waterfall didn’t get me wet like many of the other falls I visited in Iceland. The rain had finally stopped earlier in the evening when Andy exclaimed “I’m going to Godafoss while it’s dry — who wants to come?!” I think we left our campsite sometime around 11pm and spent almost 2 hours at the waterfall. Iceland doesn’t believe in installing railings like we do in the United States. Perhaps they just don’t care if people die, or because there’s no railings, people aren’t as dumb. Perhaps people in the US just really are more dumb? There’s nothing preventing you from going right to the edge of the waterfall, as you can see in the upper left and most of us did exactly that! I decided, however, that I would stay below the falls and shoot it from down below. I loved the way that Godafoss curves around in a bowl shape. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/14, 30 sec, ISO 100
I spent almost 2 weeks in Iceland with 6 friends: 5 of whom were not photographers. This meant that rather than following the weather, like I would have preferred, we followed our itinerary instead. Mama Nature had the perfect chance to attach a rope between our RV and the rain clouds and boy did she take advantage. It wasn’t until 9 days into our trip that I finally saw the sun. The first 8 days were filled with rain, fog, more rain, more fog, and grey grey sky. Fortunately the last 2 nights ended quite spectacularly. There’s a few places in Iceland that photographers love and Kirkjufell Mountain is one of them. Of course it was high on my list of places to visit and we saved it for almost last. We arrived at Grundarfjörður, the town next to the mountain, parked the RV in their marina and made dinner. Dinner seemed to last for hours. Every few minutes I would get up, look at where the sun is, and say “guys, can we hurry up?!” Of course the non-photographers responded with “relax, it’ll be fine!” Finally I jumped into the drivers seat, told everyone to hold on, and drove us over to the spot. Surprisingly, this view is right off the road (you can, in fact, see the road at the bottom of the mountain) and offers countless compositions. As we arrived though, the clouds started to thin out and it forced our compositions to move to the left, towards the 3-pronged waterfall and the bridge. Fortunately the sky lit up beautifully long enough for us to snap a few photos. About 20 minutes after this photo was taken, a marine layer moved in, the clouds disappeared, and the beautiful sunset was gone. Thanks, Mama Nature, for a yummy bit of dessert! I loved the way the mountain looks like a witches hat while the waterfall and river brew below it. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/9, 1/6 sec, ISO 100
