Kyle Jones
Moderator
Vestrahorn Reflections - Höfn, Iceland
We started that day driving from Gullfoss in Western Iceland to the town of Höfn where we'd be spending the next four nights. Our goal for that night was to shoot the Vestrahorn, a 1500 ft mountain that rises above the Stokksness black sand beach and was just a short drive from town. Sunset was at 10:50 but the light was already looking good when we arrived in the area so we rushed to get our things together and drove toward our goal.
The fog was pouring in when we arrived and I rushed to find a good angle to view the mountain. We found a road leading out to a likely spot, parked, and were met with HOWLING winds. We went out and set up tripods, only to see... Nothing (I'll post a behind the scenes shot in the comments).
In the rush I left my gloves in the car and the wind was doing a number on my hands. Fortunately, that wind kept the fog moving so every once in a while the mountain would peak through and we'd snap some shots. They were OK but the beach we were using as a foreground wasn't awesome. Eventually I noticed amazing sunset light behind us, so I crossed the spit of land between the two beaches and worked on some pictures there - walking out onto the black sand and getting reflections of the colors. After a while I turned around again and saw a wonderful view of the Vestrahorn with nice leading lines in the sand, colorful clouds in the sky, and reasonable amounts of fog pouring past it - and I was able to capture the image I'd envisioned.
1) Some nice light at the first beach where we set up
2) The sunset in the other direction that caught my eye
3) The final shot of the full Vestrahorn
We started that day driving from Gullfoss in Western Iceland to the town of Höfn where we'd be spending the next four nights. Our goal for that night was to shoot the Vestrahorn, a 1500 ft mountain that rises above the Stokksness black sand beach and was just a short drive from town. Sunset was at 10:50 but the light was already looking good when we arrived in the area so we rushed to get our things together and drove toward our goal.
The fog was pouring in when we arrived and I rushed to find a good angle to view the mountain. We found a road leading out to a likely spot, parked, and were met with HOWLING winds. We went out and set up tripods, only to see... Nothing (I'll post a behind the scenes shot in the comments).
In the rush I left my gloves in the car and the wind was doing a number on my hands. Fortunately, that wind kept the fog moving so every once in a while the mountain would peak through and we'd snap some shots. They were OK but the beach we were using as a foreground wasn't awesome. Eventually I noticed amazing sunset light behind us, so I crossed the spit of land between the two beaches and worked on some pictures there - walking out onto the black sand and getting reflections of the colors. After a while I turned around again and saw a wonderful view of the Vestrahorn with nice leading lines in the sand, colorful clouds in the sky, and reasonable amounts of fog pouring past it - and I was able to capture the image I'd envisioned.
1) Some nice light at the first beach where we set up
2) The sunset in the other direction that caught my eye
3) The final shot of the full Vestrahorn
