living on the edge Photo

Photographer’s Note

*scanned image*

It was my first trip to Iceland, late in the summer of 2004. I was on my way (alone) to Arkansas (US) from Finland and had decided to skip the airplane as much as possible.
It had always been a dream of mine to go to Iceland, and finally, at the age of 22, I stepped onto that most magnificent island.

Armed with my 20 year old Nikon F401s, I traveled across the island in one week and fell totally and completely head over heels in Love with that piece of land stranded on the Atlantic.

This picture was my first close-up of the pure black sand.
It wasn't just on the beach, it actually constituted the soil in many places. It blew my mind. How come this grass was able to live on it? How come everything flourished on it?
How come Iceland wasn't just ice and some land?
An island that transformed my preconceived notions about this Earth and opened me up to myself and my passions, photography and writing.

The picture was taken as the sun was setting behind the hill sheltering the little town of Vík, in the southernmost tip of Iceland.
If I'd lifted myself/camera just a little bit, you'd see some tops of little houses and perhaps even the town church, but they would have come to distract the whole more than anything.
I hope you can enjoy it just as it is :D

I was probably working with ISO 400, but I'm not at all sure, and the camera was on auto-mode (as pretty much always with that brilliant Nikon F401s that I trust more than my ability to do proper metering).
The wind was quite hard and lifted up a good bit of mist from the ocean, hence that white veil beyond the foreground.
I haven't processed this picture in any other way except resize it and save-for-web (and done the adjustments to keep it looking like it should after that terrible saving property in CS ;P saturation and lower brightness). Oh, and of course, I added my name :P
Unfortunately in this web-format the picture lost a good bit of the details under the tip of the falling grass/sand...

Thank You in advance to those amongst you who take the time to criticize and/or leave a comment!

sarju, atus, JonteW, Uhu has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

danyy (69929) 2006-07-01 17:51

Bonjour Julia,
une vue qui montre bien la désolation et la virginité de ces terres du grand Nord.
Une végétation tenace, maigre.
Une DOF qui nous concentre sur cet avant plan herbeux et nous livre en flou, derrière, des sols plus hostiles.
Excellent cadrage.
J'ai toujours très envie de m'y rendre.
Bien à toi.
Daniel.

dvlazar (6492) 2006-07-02 2:47

Julia - a beautiful photo - with an interesting depth of field and nice natural and soft light on the cliff face. Nice focal point in the top left... well done.
Cheers,
dave.

cobraphil8 (11652) 2006-07-03 8:13

Salut Julia,
est-ce que la santé va mieux?
Cette photo va bien avec la photo de la cascade où tu avais fait le focus sur les fleurs en premier plan, c'est de la même veine et cela me plait toujours autant de voir cette approche au plus près de la terre...
Comme le dit Daniel, cette terre au loin a l'air très hostile et on resterait bien sur cette petite touffe d'herbes :D
Bonne semaine
Philippe

sarju (5308) 2006-07-03 16:39

Hi Julia
I feel that Light metering is something that Nikons are way ahead of canons and your photos show it so very well.
I love the black sand that you have captured in this photo .. the grass and the mist coming out on the water also looks pristine .. there are so many intricate details in this photo, i can go on and on !!!
another photo that I would have been tempted to take in this setting would have been to underexpose the photo so that shadows turn out black and the mountain with the sunlight in the background comes out with details.
thanks again for this share ... I love this photo as a geographer, and it also appeals to my artistic soul and mind

atus (15476) 2006-07-04 6:14

Hello Julia,
very nice shot here from a good PoV and with excellent perspective. You managed very well the not easy light conditions, the colors are nice and well saturated. Compliments and have a nice day!
Attila

AandK (1814) 2006-07-05 18:34

Hey Julia,
I'm really impressed by your passion for nice landscape and photography. All your shots are good concnerning sharpness and color. Especially in this shot I like your play with the DOF. If you always dreamt about going to Iceland 22 years is pretty early, don't you think? In my life a dream is going to come true quite early aswell. I'll travel through south america and all it's volcanoes in two weeks time!
I'm looking forward to your next shots!
TFS
Andreas

Sterne (2927) 2006-07-07 11:51

Bonjour Julia,
C'est le genre de photo ou on a envie de repousser les cotés pour voir ce qu'il y a. On devine une rivière, les bruits qui l'accompagnent, les montagnes qui projettent cet ombre et un grand calme devant ce spectacle.
Comme disent souvent les trekiens ... j'aurais quand meme bien aime la voir en version large :)
Stéphane

westernisles (736) 2006-07-08 11:16

Hi Julia,
I like your picture very much!!!
Sense of depth and composition are really good.
Well done.
Christian

JonteW (182) 2006-07-12 15:54

Lovely POV! And you have captured the lovely colors of Iceland in this shot! In my opinion it is a pitty there isn't a little more DOF. My eyes seem to want to rest about 1/3 into the picture on the ridge going from the top right corner towards the center of the image. Not the ridge coming in from the right, which should and now is in focus.

mammad (3181) 2006-07-19 5:43

Dear Julia ,
BRAVO,
This is really something! Well composed with excellent compo and light and everything.
The sense of peacefulness is well preserved .One of the best I've seen in a long time .Thank you.
Regards Mammad.

mpb001 (4600) 2006-09-21 18:55

A very cool shot, Julia. Nice, crisp detail of the grasses. The clumps of grasses overhanging on the left remind me of "trolls heads" or some other creature. I tend to see a lot of animated, abstract forms in Icelandic nature. I guess it's just a magical environment.
Mike

rafalzurawel (229) 2006-09-25 16:54

I love the colours of Iceland. You find this colours very offen! great!
Rafal

donluicu (24001) 2006-11-03 11:52

salut Julia
super texte, bonne explicatioin et, c'est qd même la base, superbe photo , malgré ton vieux nikon..

bravo, excellent pdv et courte pdc.

ciao