Not too much of an explanation needed here. I believe this waterfall is Skógafoss, which we hit on our way back to the city from Jökulsárlón. We were pretty road weary, but we kept on trekking to get the trip complete. Officially, Skógafoss waterfall is a width of 82 feet and a drop of 200 ft. I can’t say this photo gives the grandeur the justice it deserves.
Canon 7D | Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 | | 44 mm | f/4.0 | 1/125th | ISO100
On our recent trip to Iceland, we decided to drive for nearly a full day. It took about 5 or 6 hours by car. We wanted to get out to the Ice Lagoon at Jökulsárlón. Vatnajökull is a glacier where it descends off the mountains and the volcano. It flows into the ice lagoon, called Jökulsárlón. Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in Europe, and covers approximately 8% of the island.
You have this scene. A glacier is coming down off the hills and into a lagoon. As the water warms up the ice, large ice chunks break off and float around in the lagoon. A river connects the lagoon with the Atlantic Ocean. Many of these icebergs float out to the ocean. They are washed back onto the beach by the waves. Of course, this is Iceland, so it’s not just a normal beach, it’s a black sand volcanic rock beach. So you have these enormous, man-sized chunks of ice washing up on a black sand beach. It’s really something to behold.
Today’s shot is over the river. A few of these icebergs try to be free. They make their way out to the ocean. More of the lagoon to follow!!
Canon 7D | Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 | 49mm | f/18.0 | 1/160th | ISO100
During our trip to Iceland, we rented a car for a few days. We explored the part of the island outside of Reykjavik, which is most of the island. There is a ‘tourist Golden Circle‘, which includes stopping in Thingvellir where the world’s oldest parliament was established in year 930, Gullfoss, one of Iceland largest and most powerful waterfalls and Geysir, the one and only original geyser which all others take their name from. All three can be done in a single day trip from Reykjavik, but if you have crazy people taking a million photos, you may not get back into the city until after the restaurants and shops have closed, and will have a very grumpy group of travelers.
One interesting fact about Thingvellir is that it is where the North American and European tectonic plates meet. More specifically, it is where they are pulling apart. If I remember correctly, they pull apart at between 1 and 10 millimeters per year. This movement is not too drastic. However, the plates do cause frequent earthquakes. You can see the ridge of rocks in the photo below. Absolutely amazing place.
Canon 7D | Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 | 14mm | f/11.0 | 1/160th | ISO100
Well, back in June I promised some photos from Iceland. It’s now October. I intended to post much more frequently, but life sometimes gets in the way. In fact, we have finally achieved a long dream of an overseas move. We will be leaving Seattle by the end of the year and will be relocating to Sydney, Australia. We’re both super-excited. However, as you can imagine, there are a lot of decisions that have to be made. We have to sell or give away a lot of stuff, and manage the eventual move. Sometime around the new year, I’ll start posting from Oz. I hope to highlight Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific, and Southeast Asia. Looking forward to it.
Today’s photo is from the Blue Lagoon, just outside Reykjavik, Iceland. A natural, geo-thermal bath, it’s a really nice spa as well. Also, there is a small bar on the edge of the pool. Imagine me sitting, squatting, or floating in water up to mid-chest. The water is this milky-blueish/white color. It is naturally heated to approximately 100° F. I am sipping on sparkling wine. It was glorious. This photo is looking over the pools outside of the actual spa, with the building just off in the background. More of the actual spa to come later!!
Canon 7D | Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 | 14mm | f/11.0 | 1/25th | ISO100
We were driving down the dirt road in the Chimp reserve. Our driver stopped for a family crossing. There were actually about 10 of these guys, but we snapped these two alone. At one point, one of the adults just sat down in the middle of the road. I will post that one later on. Enjoy!!
Canon Rebel XSi | Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L | 400mm | f/7.1 | 1/400 | ISO500
Today, we’re going back to Melbs. This is another shot of St. Paul’s Cathedral in central Melbourne. We spent the day walking around the city. We saw a few of the various neighborhoods. We walked back along the river. At one point, just after this shot, we were right on the Yarra river. We looked east towards the Melbourne Cricket Grounds and Rod Laver arena. The Australian Open is held there. Additionally, we looked west back into the CBD. The weather was incredible for most of the day. I think I could follow the summer. I could spend Nov-Feb in the Southern Hemisphere. Then, I could spend June-Sept in the Northern Hemisphere. I’m not really sure who would pay me to do that. However, I keep hearing about winemakers. They spend the late summer and harvest in California, Oregon, and Washington. They ferment the wine and lay it down in barrels. Then, they travel to Australia and New Zealand. They repeat the process during the summer and harvest in the Southern Hemisphere. Now, that sounds like the good life to me!!!
Canon 7D | Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 | 43mm | f/7.1 | 1/400th | ISO100
On our safari, after a full day of traveling, there was an early morning flight from Nairobi to Tanzania. Our safari guides picked us up at the airport. They took us on an ATM safari before our actual safari started (more on that later). Once we got the cash sorted, we left Moshi. Our first stop was at a chimpanzee reserve. The stop was likely intended to get us out of the car and stretch our legs. However, there was an amazing reserve where there must have been a hundred chimpanzees just hanging out. We dutifully stretched our legs. This was the first time we used one of our rental camera lenses. It was the Canon 100-400 mm monster. That lens was incredible, and anytime that I go on another wildlife trek, I will rent that lens again. Here’s one of the first looks at the chimps.
Canon XSi | Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L | 150mm | f/5.0 | 1/125th | ISO800
During out stay in Australia over the holidays, we went wine tasting in the Yarra Valley outside of Melbourne. We visitied Sticks Winery, which was good, relatively easy drinking, fruit focused wines. We visited Domaine Portet Winery, which was much more refined and classy. Finally, we visited Tarrawarra winery, which was generally good wine, but had a feel of mass-production behind it. We also had lunch at Tarrawarra, which was really good food, but the service was a little pretentious. The photo below was looking out from the tasting room and over the grounds, which were beautiful. Again, used HDR technique to give slightly more depth.
Canon 7D | Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 | 31mm | f/18 | 1/250th | ISO400
Hi all – apologies for the disappearance, but we’re back with some very special photos. Here is my very first HDR shot. For those of you that are not familiar, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range photography. It is a process where you combine a handful of photos. These photos have different exposure levels. They are combined to create a single image. Opinion is pretty much split on this style of photography. Many people say that the images are too color-contrasted. They argue that it makes images look flat. Others say the images are closer to what the human eye sees. This is true if you don’t make the HDR look like a cartoon effect.
I personally like them, and here’s my first one. We flew overnight between San Francisco and Auckland, New Zealand. The sun was rising in the distance. I was trying out a new 14mm Canon lens that I bought. I was also adding in the HDR automatic exposure bracketing. The result is sort of an ‘apocolypse over Air New Zealand’. Hope you enjoy!!
Canon 7D | Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L | 14mm | f/5.0 | 1/100th | ISO100
Ok, one last lion shot. This was the best of the bunch. You can’t help think they are so sweet sitting there, but at some point you realize that both of them could rip you in half…
Canon Rebel XSi | Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L | 275mm | f/5.6 | 1/320 | ISO160
Paul Rin Travel Photojournalism 