On the last full day of our recent winter Iceland tour I awoke to a major white-out of a snowstorm. We were in one of my favorite areas of the country, the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, which has some of the most beautiful and iconic sights on that most beautiful and iconic island. It didn’t look good for driving. much less sightseeing and photography. Nonetheless, we checked out and hit the road with our intrepid local guide and driver, Sigurður. He tried hard to find us things to see and photograph but at times the visibility could be measured in tens of feet. After a couple hours of this we arrived at the incredibly photogenic (and oft-photographed) waterfall of Kirkjufellsfossar with the pyramidal mountain of Kirkjufell beyond. But we couldn’t see the mountain hiding beneath a white cloak of driving snow, white mist, and low clouds. I was skeptical that any interesting photograph could be had but we gave it a-go.
From the parking lot I trudged through the snow with my camera in my coat and made my way to the waterfall. It really is a set of three main falls emptying into a river that gracefully curves around an outcropping. On clear days the mountain looms impressively in the background. I was first here seven years ago on a cloudy summer day. I waited for about 15 minutes and finally got a bit of sun on the mountain, as seen here. This time in the whipping snow, the shape of the mountain was only hinted at. i thought at the least I would descend to the end of the path and photograph the falls and call it good. Slipping and sliding my way down the path i got to the end and proceeded to shoot bursts of images, with the plan to blend them in post-processing to create the nice blurred effect of falling, flowing water. There was no way I was going to fiddle with a tripod in those conditions. After a minute or two of that I started climbing up the path until I got to approximately where I set up my tripod 7 years before, and lo! The lovely shape of Kirkjufell began appearing out of the gauzy whiteness. The snow was still falling, though not as intensely. After waiting another minute I began shooting hand-held vertical bursts with the intent of creating a panorama. I quickly shot five frames comprised of 10-15 exposure bursts and thought: not ideal, but I think this will work!
Later, in our Reykjavík before flying home the next day, I processed the image. Each frame comprised of multiple exposures I stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop to achieve the water-blurred look I was looking for. Then the five resulting images were photo merged as a panorama in Lightroom. That large image I then brought back into Photoshop for cleanup, to add contrast, and to sharpen. The image above, I think, attests to the values or persistence and patience in photography!
Words and Photograph Jeff Clay