This was the day I have been waiting for… Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. The glacier calves huge chunks of ice which float down the lagoon and escape to the sea as low tide pulls water from the lagoon. They get washed back up onto a black sand beach and are, as I found out this morning, extremely difficult to photograph. Fortunately we have 3 days here, so I'll have a chance to improve my performance to date.
The ice ranges in size from a large stone to a chest of drawers. Looks are deceptive though, you cannot move one the size of a small dog even a millimetre. Some are quite regular in shape and some are fantastic, like Dr Seuss characters.
Again we have been lucky, this year there is more clear ice, often the pieces are milky and opaque. The technicalities of photographing these beautiful bits of ice are immense and you have to always, always keep an eye on the raging sea. Four people got a soaking this morning, two seriously, despite warnings, and that brings the dead camera total to 3 in two days! The plastic over pants and insulated boots kept me dry even though I got washed up to my knees several times.
Later we went to another arm of the glacier that feeds the lagoon & got some exercise trudging up a hill, sinking up to knees in the snow, or higher in some cases. We couldn't get close enough though as there are rivers running under the snow. And everything is starting to melt from underneath.
The rain cleared and we have had sunny weather all day and no wind at some point. It is a balmy 5 degrees - amazing what you get used to.
The ice ranges in size from a large stone to a chest of drawers. Looks are deceptive though, you cannot move one the size of a small dog even a millimetre. Some are quite regular in shape and some are fantastic, like Dr Seuss characters.
Again we have been lucky, this year there is more clear ice, often the pieces are milky and opaque. The technicalities of photographing these beautiful bits of ice are immense and you have to always, always keep an eye on the raging sea. Four people got a soaking this morning, two seriously, despite warnings, and that brings the dead camera total to 3 in two days! The plastic over pants and insulated boots kept me dry even though I got washed up to my knees several times.
Later we went to another arm of the glacier that feeds the lagoon & got some exercise trudging up a hill, sinking up to knees in the snow, or higher in some cases. We couldn't get close enough though as there are rivers running under the snow. And everything is starting to melt from underneath.
The rain cleared and we have had sunny weather all day and no wind at some point. It is a balmy 5 degrees - amazing what you get used to.
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