David's Images of the Day Photoblog
European Golden Plover Doing the Broken Wing Dance — Attempting to Distract us From Her Chick. Vestmannaeyjar (Westman), on Heimaey Island Iceland. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 450, 400 mm, f/11, 1/320 sec).
Motocross Rider Descending the Stairway of the Urða Lighthouse. Located on a lava field on the eastern point of Heimaey in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V2 camera and 10-100 mm VR lens (ISO 160, 100 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec).
Juvenile European Golden Plover in Iceland. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 360, 400 mm, f/11, 1/320 sec).
We spent the day on the island of Vestmannaeyjar. Puffins, sheep, and landscapes. The main town on the island was nearly destroyed by volcanic activity in 1973.
The group did a high-speed RIB Safari boat tour to the islands around Vestmannaeyjar. We needed to get into arctic survival suits, and had shoulder harness belts holding us in our seats. I strapped a camera to my chest with a fisheye lens and set it to automatically take images every few seconds. At times the boat was traveling at 40 knots with lots of heavy bouncing. We went all the way out to Surtsey island that I remember reading about as a kid rising from the sea as a volcano. At one point we saw a whale, so slowed down and stopped to take pictures. While stopped the boat rocked a lot, causing one or two passengers to lose their breakfast. This is a rough cut before adding titles, stills, a GPS map, and music. Beware if you are prone to motion sickness. Images captured with a Nikon D800 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens.