Iceland - David Mathre Photography

Five-Years Ago (30-July-2013) — Iceland

Gone to See Iceland 2013 Photography Safari with Mike Hagen. Day 1: Golden Circle Tour.

The Bubble Has Burst. One of our stops for the day was to see Strokkur, a geyser in the Haukadalur geothermal area beside the Hvítá River in southwest Iceland. The geyser erupts every 6-10 minutes, and you can get much closer than Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. It should be noted that there were several tour buses stopped at the site, and lots of folks queued up to view the geyser. I found a spot a bit back on the other side and sent up a tripod to take a series of images with a Nikon D4 camera and 80-400 mm VRII telephoto zoom lens (ISO 100, 80 mm, f/11, 1/320 sec) that were then combined to create a GIF motion video of the bubble bursting.

Five-Years Ago (29-July-2013) — Iceland

Gone to See Iceland 2013 Photography Safari with Mike Hagen. Day 0: Reykjavik.

Silhouette of Sun Voyager (Sólfar) at Sunset. From wikipedia “Sun Voyager is a dreamboat, an ode to the sun. Intrinsically, it contains within itself the promise of undiscovered territory, a dream of hope, progress and freedom.” Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 160, 10 mm, f/8, 1/400 sec).

I had no control over the folks crawling over the statue, the bikes parked, or the folks fishing – but still like the image.

Silhouette of Sun Voyager (Sólfar) at Sunset. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 160, 10 mm, f/8, 1/400 sec). Nikonians Photo Adventure with Mike Hagen. (David J Mathre) — Silhouette of Sun Voyager (Sólfar) at Sunset. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and 10 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 160, 10 mm, f/8, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)

Five-Years Ago (28-July-2013) — Iceland

Gone to See Iceland 2013 Photography Safari with Mike Hagen. Day -1: Reykjavik.

I arrived in Iceland a couple of days early. At the airport I ran into Mike. After we checked into the hotel we would be staying at we went on a walkabout in Reykjavik to do some street photography. I had never been in Iceland, so didn’t know what to expect.

Four-Years Ago (15-March-2014) — Iceland

Gone to See Iceland 2014 – Winter Photography Workshop. Day 7: Golden Circle.

Svartsengi geothermal power plant near the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 23 mm f/1.4 lens. Between Geothermal and Hydroelectric power more electricity is generated than needed by the 340K residents of Iceland. The excess power is used by a couple of aluminum smelting plants, and more recently by bitcoin miners. I heard a report on the news that 600 computers specially configured with multiple video processors for bitcoin mining were stolen from a warehouse data center in Iceland. Need to follow where the power is being used…

Svartsengi Geothermal Power Plant Near the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 23 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 23 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)

Trolls Lair. Moss Covered Lava Field Just Outside the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. Composite of 3 images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 23 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 23 mm, f/11). Google HDR Efex Pro. (David J Mathre)

Four-Years Ago (14-March-2014) — Iceland

Gone to See Iceland 2014 – Winter Photography Workshop. Day 6: Golden Circle.

Return from the center of the earth. Fisheye view from behind Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall in southern Iceland. HDR composite of 3 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 100, 16 mm, f/10) using Capture One Pro and Google HDR Efex Pro 2. For the title, I like the B&W version better than the color one. There are also too many artifacts (purple fringing) in the color version. In either case, it was a difficult shot with the wide range of light, and the constant spray of water from the waterfall. The pathway to the back of the waterfall was covered with ice, and I was glad I had crampons for my boots.

Fisheye View From Behind Seljalandsfoss, a Waterfall in Southern Iceland. HDR composite of 3 images taken with a Nikon Df camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 100, 16 mm, f/10) using Capture One Pro and Google HDR Efex Pro 2. (David J Mathre)