Iceland

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madmatt

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last week my wife and i set out on a mini adventure around Iceland. We were only in the country for 60 hours, and part of the condition of going was that my wife got to go to the blue lagoon. I had hired a tour guide to show us around and drive to all the best spots...but 2 weeks before we went he deleted me off Facebook and i haven't heard from him since...luckily i hadn't paid him any money! so i decided I'm good with a map, i can plan where to go, and just hire a 4x4...best decision ever! seeing Iceland when your in control is 100% the best way to go. We got to see so much more at our own pace and tried to avoid the buses!

our first day, we landed and went straight to the blue lagoon...was certainly different. i found it very romantic, i think my wife preferred the photos of it to the actual being there!

the thursday we decided (i decided) that i wanted to see Kirkjufell and to get the iconic images i had seen so many times. It was a good drive there, and we managed to stop a few times including a lovely little burst of sunlight as the sun rose over the mountain tops. i will let the images speak for themselves on this one...
1.
TPI_3986-HDR copy by Matt Phillips, on Flickr
2.
dream cottage by Matt Phillips, on Flickr
3.
Kirkjufell waterfalls by Matt Phillips, on Flickr
4.
Kirkjufell reflection by Matt Phillips, on Flickr
5.
TPI_4271 copy by Matt Phillips, on Flickr

on the friday we had it all. Best day of photography i have ever had. An amazing sunrise, perfect light all day and a beautiful sunset. then the Northern lights showed with just 6 minutes before we were going to leave the national park we were at to hunt them down.

again i will let the images do the talking for this day...
6.
Iceland sunrise by Matt Phillips, on Flickr
7.
Geysir by Matt Phillips, on Flickr
8.
Vik beach by Matt Phillips, on Flickr
 
Wow - what an experience. I adore all the photographs but, of course, the last one is my favorite.
 
Really great set, especially 3 and 4. Your watermark's a bit distracting though ;)
 
I like number 9 a lot, but I think the top half of the image might be a bit too dark for my taste. Lovely light on the church though. Really impressive set :)
 
Wonderful Wonderful set.
 
Fabulous set and all in 60 hours - amazing! I think in everyone of these you have captured the light just perfect.
Favourites - has to be the Northern Lights and Kirkjufell waterfalls. I'm amazed you managed to get the Kirkjufell's with nobody in them. The three times I've been here it has been crawling with coach loads of photographers and tripods - some of which hurling abuse at others to "get out of the way"!

These have got me itching to return to Iceland soon.........thanks;).
 
They are great to look and thanks for posting it has really got my excitement up for our trip in February.

Personally the HDR has taken things slightly too far in places and introduced some unwanted artefacts, like the colour fringing in the second kirkjufell shot, but nice photos and you got one great light.
 
madmatt said:
thank you ST4, i think its where i have pulled the highlights back a bit to get the sky. Will have a play on lightroom later.
Click to expand...

Did you correct for CA when converting the RAW?

And the more I look at them the more I like them!
 
A really great set - a very successful 60 hours - considering that the Icelandic weather can be an unpredictable mistress! I think the sunrise one is my favourite (it's looking out over Hveragerði right? ) but they are all very and a couple are a bit usual from the usual. It's a shame about the noise and blurred stars in the northern lights shot, as it is a bit distracting, but i also that the first time i saw the NL i got very excited and would have done different things with my shots in hindsight! I'm still editing from my last trip in September... as i am a procrastinator.

I look forward to seeing more should you go back! (if you want a guide geared towards photos, arcticshots.is are top blokes - they do various tours :) and will not delete you off facebook! )
 
madmatt said:
it doesn't help being colourblind...i don't tend to mess with colours and can't see CA unless i zoom right in. what do you shoot with now?
Click to expand...

No worries. I was going to replace it with the new 16-35 2.8 iii but the price put me off so I replaced it with a pair of sigma art prime lenses. A 20mm and a 35mm both 1.4 ready for our trip in February. Probably be constant cloud!

Still miss the zoom though and the weight of the 20mm does my head in but the iq of the art series is incredible.
 
Shots look amazing, nice to get a look at them before we fly out on Firday for a few days. Not sure I'll be able to take anything similar, very impressive.

Intention is to take my CSC point and shoot, least better than a phone camera.

We've booked golden circle, blue lagoon, northern lights. Any other recommendations? Can't stretch to hiring a car unfortunately (sorry for going off topic slightly).
 
@Sko77y how many of you going? i'd have thought two 2 x golden circle, 2x blue lagoon 2 x northern lights would be more £ than hiring a small car for a few days that would get you to those places - Geysir and Blue car rental are very reasonably priced. happy to chat more on a PM rather than distract from Matt's great photos :) or have a read through this which starts off about kit but has lots of other recommendations - https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/iceland-equipment-list.598400/
 
These are absolutely unreal - fantastic images.

I personally cannot get enough of the Northern Lights and it is a 'must see' for me sometime with my camera.

Great set - thanks for sharing.
 
I`m surprised no one has pointed this out about the last shot, Although a lovely shot, its OOF, the stars are just blobs in the sky and the landscape is just way OOF too.
Other than that they are lovely shots and something that you got to cherish.
 
Lovely locations and really nice compositions, but the processing lets some of them down IMO. I think a few have been pushed a little too far and there are artefacts and halo's appearing, some of them also have an almost paint filter look where I'm guessing you might of used quite high luminance?
 
These are the best shots, by rather a large margin, that I have seen of Iceland. (y)
 
@Graham i mentioned issues with the northern lights shot :) - that being said, i forgot everything in my brain when i first saw the northern lights and panicked trying to get a photo lol
 
Great set of images as usual Matt. Especially love number 6, simply because the rest are the usual Iceland photos, so for me, this really stands out. It's not to say the rest are 'ok' photographs, they're all stunning!
 
wonderful shots, like the last pic the best.Makes me think about planning a trip there.
 
3 , 10 , 11 Are brilliant shots, Amazing drama in 10 spectacular scene, I got a real soft sport for a long exposure on a waterfall, Beautiful scene in 3 and wee composed, and 11 is subtle romantic and just a very beautiful scene.
 
What a set eh :)

Looks like the time before we came along and spoilt things.
 
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