I managed to get up early and was at the entrance to Stokksnes for 7am. I wanted to walk up along the track - avoiding the entrance fee and getting some different views. The skies were mostly clear and it was pretty cold, but the wind wasn't too bad, which made it all a bit more bearable. I didn't see any horses having a dawn romp like on my last early-morning visit. I walked up along the road for about ten minutes before heading off into the dunes in search of a suitable composition for sunrise. I was disappointed that there was no frost, and as it hadn't been particularly windy, not a great deal of ripples either (both add immensely to the photographic opportunities!). The mountains were sprinkled with snow, though, so it still looked pretty magical; it was great to be back.
I found a spot behind a rippled dune and settled in with my tripod, capturing the first pinkness on the scattered clouds above mighty Vestrahorn.
And then I watched as the sun hit the top of the peaks.
It comes quickly and the next thing you know the snow is pink and the rocks on the mountains are a burnt sienna red, and the dunes in the distance are glowing as if they were on fire.
It took a while for the sun to reach the dunes in front of me (in the shadow of the dunes behind) and I was absolutely freezing, waiting for the sun's warmth to finally arrive. As I did so, the clouds above the mountain grew. Once the sun was high enough up to reach me the light on the mountain had already lost its red glow. I had wanted to do some really long exposures (would have worked magnificently with the fast-moving clouds streaking across the sky) but the bulb function on my camera wasn't working and I couldn't find the remote [slowly the damage from
the time the camera got too wet is presenting itself]. So I was limited to 30 seconds, which was a shame. The appearance of the sun was very welcome and I warmed up a little.
I left my spot at this particular dune and headed towards the beach - I always like to do a bit of a loop while I'm here - taking in the dunes, the edge of the beach with the rocks and the long expanse of beach where you get the good reflections. There was quite a bit of ice on the ground which was pretty in the morning golden hour light.
I love the view from the top of the rocks, when you first see the massive expanse of the beach in front of you. As the sun got higher, the light lost that wonderful golden glow.
I walked down over the slippery rocks to the end of the beach where you can sometimes get some decent water trails from the receding waves, but the tide was a little far out and nothing much of interest was happening. I like the view from this far south, as you get to see the spikes of Brunnholl peeking out behind Vestrahorn's eastern peak, whereas this gets hidden when you're closer to the car-park among the dunes.
It wasn't too busy - just a few people dotted around on the beach and in the dunes. As it's quite a large area it's actually quite easy to get away from people. I walked along the beach in order to get a few reflection shots - the rather clichéd shots of the whole range reflected in the wet sand. The light wasn't great now, with scattered clouds, so the photos look a bit more dramatic converted to black and white (is that a lazy editing technique? I don't know, but they just look better in this instance).
In order to get the reflection shots you have to wait for some really big sneaker waves to recede (they don't seem to be dangerous here as the beach is so flat) and then grab your shot before the next one arrives. It amuses me to watch people without waterproof boots on trying to do this, running back up the beach every time a new wave approaches. Wearing wellies in Iceland has made this kind of photography a lot easier!
I got a couple of the shots of the whole range reflected and then headed back towards the car, passing the rocks in the little frozen lagoon.
By the time I got back to the car it was 10am, so I'd spent 3 hours at this spot. I could have spent longer there, but I get an urge to move on - there's that need to charge batteries and the desire to review the photos from the session. The need for a cup of tea also becomes a bit more pressing! If I had more than a few days in this area maybe I'd have spent all day there, exploring a bit further afield (taking a flask with me).
I drove back through the tunnel and down the wonderful sweeping road towards home. I noticed that a new road had been built in the past year or so down to a little parking spot, overlooking Papafjörður (the opposite side from the little farm huts I'd seen the previous day). I decided to stop briefly there and headed off down the slight hill towards the beach, armed with just the camera and 70-200mm zoom, thinking I'd just take a few shots of the view from a distance. Two girls were admiring the view of the v-shaped valley from the shoreline. I'd walked down to that beach a few years earlier and always adored that view of the Kastárdalur valley and the backside of the mountains I'd just seen from Stokksnes.
I reached the muddy beach and was annoyed at myself for not having brought my camera bag with me and the rest of my lenses - the peaks reflected in the lagoon were not possible to capture in their entirety with the lens at its widest (70mm). The girls advised me to go further along the beach for better reflections. The beach was squelchy and almost like quicksand in places. Again I was glad for my wellies, otherwise in a couple of places I might have ended up with mud over the top of my shoes! I found a spot where the water was like glass and took some vertical shots to stitch together so managed to get what I would've captured with a wider angled lens (and a lot less post-processing effort!). The light wasn't great, but the cloud formations were quite nice.
I continued on a bit and took a few shots of the valley across the water. I'd first
photographed this view in March 2014 and had loved the stripes from the snow, but it had never looked like this on subsequent visits until today. The huts looked so tiny in the distance!
I wandered back along the beach towards the car and noticed some wonderful ice formations covering the rocks - like sheets of cracked glass over the vegetation and rocks. I'd seen
something similar over seaweed driving around Berufjörður, on the trip five years earlier - obviously the weather conditions had been fairly alike.
On further inspection I was blown away by the ice - the sheets were about 1cm thick and had enormous bubbles in them - very cool indeed!
Again I was annoyed with myself with having only the telephoto lens - not ideal when trying to capture something like this. I could have gone back to the car and then come back down again with the other lenses and tripod, but didn't, as I felt this need to "get on". On the way back I saw the most incredible pattern that looked like an eye - I took a few photos, but realised later should have moved a bit of grass out of the way. The grass kind of ruined it, so I had to crop it out of most of the photos!
I walked back up to the car, passing more interesting ice patterns and wonderful views.
I headed the short distance home and had some much-needed tea, charged batteries, had lunch (still fuming about the cheese!), and a bit of a break. One of the reasons I don't visit Iceland in the middle of winter is because there are so few hours of daylight, but I realised that often on these trips I end up spending a few hours inside in the middle of the day, so I'm not exactly making the most of the daylight hours! Next winter I'll go a little earlier and just try to make more of the daylight hours (and make sure my battery charger for the car actually works so I don't always have to go home to do the recharging - just drive for a bit).
I headed out again at about 2pm and drove down to Hvalnes. It was mostly cloudy, with some sun from time to time, but generally the light wasn't great. I stopped by the lagoon and beach entrance and wandered along the edge of the lagoon for a bit. The water was partially frozen and there were some interesting areas with pancake ice (not the most uniform or pretty, but still quite cool).
I continued along the side of the lagoon for a while, noticing loads of feathers sticking up from the grasses and pebbles, blowing in the wind.
I headed up the hill to the ridge above the beach and walked back along the beach towards the lighthouse. There were some footprints already there, but not a person in sight. The sky was streaked with some weird darker clouds.
I walked back to the car and stopped to photograph some of the pebbles. I always think of the black sand beaches of being just that - black sand, but in fact most of them are made up of black (or grey) pebbles. They just look black in their huge expanses with white frothy waves contrasted against them.
It began to rain, rather spoiling the smoothness of the pebbles, so I called it a day there. I drove the short way to the parking area overlooking the lagoon and parked to take a few shots of the view. The light was rather lovely for a brief instance. I love to look over at Brunnhóll and Vestrahorn - just visible in the distance.
I left Hvalnes at 4pm and started to drive back. I stopped at one point where the Brunnhóll becomes visible again (towards Hvalnes it's hidden in front of Vestrahorn).
The last stop before getting home was a quick nip down the road opposite the entrance to the farm. I said hello to the horses who came down towards me.
I drove down the road a little further, and took a few more shots of the view and some pebbles under the ice, before heading back to the cottage, to enjoy a nice cup of tea.
I didn't stay inside long, and drove back down the road to the river braids, in case the sky suddenly turned pink. There was a vague hint of dusky pinkness, and there's always a chance it will explode just before it sets - but sadly not this time!
I headed back to the cottage at 6.15pm as the light was poor and I was feeling rather tired after the long day and early start. I pan-fried some salmon and ate it with a large salad, washed down with one of the beers. The cloud cover was 100% all night, so I didn't have any northern lights to worry about, so headed to bed after spending a few hours going through the day's photos. The weather forecast for the following day was cloudy in the morning followed by clearer skies (but windy) in the afternoon, so no need to set the alarm early for sunrise.
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Day 5: The Wonderful Drive from Jökulsárlón to Stafafell
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Day 7: The Day of the Dreadful Fall
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