Iceland etc.

Cloudscape over Little Lava

2012-02-02T09:00:00.003Z

Little Lava (Icelandic: Litla Hraun) is Iceland's largest prison.

It is located on the southern coast, just outside the village of Eyrarbakki.

I was photographing the clouds and only noticed afterwards how nicely the prison buildings fit into the overall image.

No fishing!

2012-02-01T09:00:00.000Z

This guy was fishing in the harbour along with one or two others, despite the "no fishing" sign posted nearby. They may have been sport fishermen or more likely they were simply trying to catch some dinner. This small lighthouse is situated in Reykjavík harbour, at the end of a jetty that is accessed by going past the Harpa concert hall.

Rusting away

2012-01-30T09:00:00.000Z

An old hay rake, a hay tedder and mower (background) sit atop a spot in the hayfield where the old farmhouse used to stand and where the grass doesn't grow very well. These machines are no longer in use and the mower, which has lain there untouched since the 1960s, is completely covered in rust. I expect the rake will soon be rusted over as well. The north face of Spákonufellsborg looks rather ominous in the background.

I couldn't make up my mind which I prefer: the colour or the black-and-white version. They both have their merits, but seem to say different things.

The lava settlement , part I

2012-01-28T09:00:00.009Z

Drive past Straumur and continue along the narrow gravel road into the lava field beyond and you enter a crumbling but rather charming tiny settlement of little houses spread over a considerable area. Some are the long-abandoned abodes of small-scale tenant farmers and fishermen, while others are summer houses, some of them once farm houses.

I don't know the name of this place is (or was), but it is the largest house I saw in the area. It looks like a barn, but but a peep inside revealed that it appears to have been lived in.

Here the sun glints off a remaining shard of glass in a window frame:

Coming up the slope towards the house, it looks quite imposing.

When I looked at this photo I immediately decided that I would have to come back some day when there are brooding clouds in the sky and take some photos for an HDR treatment.

Seen from the south side:

A look inside reveals what must have been the living room:

This rusty old radiator would make a excellent focus point for an HDR photo:

Both the toilet and the piece of children's furniture look too modern to belong in this place, so I am guessing it may have been used as a summer house at some point, or possibly someone disposed of these things in there:

Outside this old chassis, probably of a lorry or a small truck, with engine still attached, lies rusting into the ground:

Series continues next Friday.

Straumur artist residence in winter

2012-01-27T09:00:00.006Z

Straumur means "stream" in Icelandic, in the meaning of "flow". It can also refer to an electrical current, a large river, or a large moving group of people, animals or vehicles, but the meaning in this case probably refers to the tides. The beautiful old house, which dates back to 1927 or 28, was designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, the same architect who designed the Hallgrímskirkja, the National Theatre, main university building and any number of churches, lighthouses and other buildings around Iceland.

The inlet the house stands by, Straumsvík, is beautiful and unique. The ponds or pools in the lava are full of fresh water which floats on top of a layer of salt water. The surface of the ponds rises and falls with the tides, but the surface water stays fresh.

Some of the lava ponds with Straumur in the background:

Below: An old hut that stands by the road down to the aluminium smelter. What it was originally, I don't know, possibly a fisherman's hut, but when I peeped inside it contained a couple of rows of what could have been shoe shelves or wooden seating on the wall, a couple of rusted lockers and a mattress. Possibly a dressing room for bathers?

Straumur was once a working farm, but now belongs to the city of Hafnarfjörður and is an art centre and artist residence.Coming from Keflavík, you can see it on the left hand side just before you get to the aluminium smelter.

The house with surroundings:

The house reflected in the nearest pond:

Sunset clouds

2012-01-26T09:00:00.008Z

The setting sun gilding the clouds.

I snapped this in Kópavogur one afternoon while waiting for the traffic light to turn green.

Photo rescue, or what to do when the white balance fails you

2012-01-25T09:00:00.003Z

The weekend before last I went on a photography expedition. I had meant to make a day of it and go out to Reykjanes, but I ended up a fairly short way from Reykjavík, on the outer edge of Hafnarfjörður where there are lots of abandoned farms near the aluminium smelter in Straumsvík.

I was shooting using several different settings, but mostly I was using the shutter priority program. Which, it turned out, had the white balance setting on manual, set to balance the light for incandescent bulbs. This, in simpler terms, means the camera automatically adds a blue cast to all the photos to compensate for the warm yellow of the artificial light. As there was a blue sky, and the shadows were blue, it made the photos very, very blue. I though the photos looked a bit blue when I looked at the camera screen on the spot, but then I though maybe it just looked that way because after all it was sunny and you can't see too well on the screen in the sun. When I got home and uploaded the photos to the camera I saw different.

Original, unedited except for a slight crop and decrease in size:

I started by swearing a bit to alleviate my feeling of stupidity and then went googling to find a solution to the problem. I have only very recently begun shooting raw and wasn't really in the mood for a crash course in image correction for that format, so I decided to tackle the .jpgs. I have not taken any courses in digital photo editing, except for a day of Photoshop many years ago which mostly covered layer masks and cloning, and I have always learned to use the software as I went along. White balance was something I had hitherto been able to fix quite well using the colour balance tools, but not in this case. Google brought me to a blog which explained what I wanted to know: there is a white balance correction filter in GIMP. You go to the Color menu, open the Auto sub-menu and choose White Balance. The rest is automatic. I used it on the above photo, reducing the cast considerably, but more was needed, so I started fiddling with the colour balance until I found a solution I could be happy with. It still looks a bit blueish and looking at it on the screen I am using now, it appears that I have added slightly too much red, but it's still much better than the original:

Of course there is a quick and dirty solution that will solve most white balance problems in one fell swoop: Desaturation.

In this case I like the black-and-white rendered image best of the three, although it still needs work - possibly a bit more contrast:

Camera: NIKON D7000
Date/Time: 2012:01:21 13:27:24
Focal Length: 22.0mm (35mm equivalent: 33mm)
Exposure Time: 0.0040 s (1/250)
Aperture: f/22.0
ISO Equiv.: 800
Whitebalance: Manual
Light Source: Incandescent
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: shutter priority (semi-auto)

Posing

2012-01-24T13:00:00.000Z

A redwing (Turdus iliacus) sits atop a fence beside the famous hot dog stand Bæjarins bestu in downtown Reykjavík, pretending not to be interested in the food scraps on the table below.

The bird was rather dark in the original and the processing it took to lighten him and get his plumage in the right colours created some interesting colour shifts in the sky.

The weather in Reykjavík today, or, My car this morning around 7:30

2012-01-24T07:55:00.004Z

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
I think in this case they're swearwords.

Oil bloom

2012-01-22T09:00:00.002Z

Yes, it's pollution, but it it looks lovely:

More phone camera experiments: Window shot

2012-01-21T09:00:00.004Z

I snapped this shot though a window at work yesterday, using the default setting on the phone camera. I tried using some other settings, but they all returned an overexposed sky in which the church was washed out almost completely.

The PicSay app, which I am testing, enabled me to fix the exposure so that the house wasn't as dark, but more was needed. I uploaded it to Pixlr, where I cropped it, sharpened the focus, used the curves tool to lighten the house without washing out the sky and the church, and increased the saturation a little (that can also be done in PicSay, but I wasn't happy with the colour shift it gave me).

Street mood

2012-01-20T09:00:00.001Z

Looking down Templarasund (Templar Alley) towards the Pond, standing in the street between the Parliament building and the Cathedral.

The only building a visitor from the 1950s wouldn't recognise is the University's Natural Sciences building in the distance.

On a foggy night

2012-01-19T09:00:00.014Z

New Year's night, just after midnight. I went down to the harbour to see if I could get fireworks shots from the harbour towards the city centre, but the smoke from the fireworks was so thick that I could hardly see any sparks through the pall. However, I did get these foggy, moody shots of the boats.

The boats in the small boats dock.

Technical details:
Camera: NIKON D7000
Date/Time: 2012:01:01 00:09:28
Focal Length: 18.0mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm)
Exposure Time: 1.000 s
Aperture: f/4.0
ISO Equiv.: 100
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: Manual
Post-processing: GIMP. Desaturated, pushed the contrasts, cropped.

The Coast Guard ships with Harpa in the background:

Technical information:

Camera: NIKON D7000
Date/Time: 2012:01:01 00:11:16
Focal Length: 40.0mm (35mm equivalent: 60mm)
Exposure Time: 2.000 s
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO Equiv.: 100
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Post-processing: GIMP. Curves adjusted, contrasts increased, saturation and contrasts increased.

How to tie a tie

2012-01-18T09:00:00.001Z

Just because it's painted on the wall of a house, it doesn't necessarily mean it's graffiti.
This is an imaginative advertisement for a men's clothing shop in the Laugavegur, showing three ways to tie a tie.
Amazingly, it seems to have been left completely alone by taggers and graffiti artists.

The handout

2012-01-17T09:00:00.000Z

A considerable number of non-migrating ducks (mostly mallards), geese and swans rely on food handouts by the Pond in downtown Reykjavík during the winter. A lot of people come to feed them in the summer, but there are always a few who give them food in the winter as well.

Here a swan delicately accepts a piece of bread from a man's hand:

At the drinking hole

2012-01-16T09:00:00.008Z

The pond in Reykjavík sometimes freezes over in the winter, giving the birds that live there year round a hard time.
I spotted these geese having a drink near the Town Hall and liked the symmetry of the group:

Technical information:
Camera: NIKON D7000
Date/Time: 2011:11:26 14:15:11
Focal Length: 105.0mm (35mm equivalent: 157 mm)
Exposure Time: 0.013 s (1/80)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO Equiv.: 100
White balance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix

Post-processing: GIMP. I pushed up the saturation and adjusted the contrasts and curves to bring out the colour of the birds' beaks and legs. I considered cropping it to portrait orientation, removing the extra goose and the mallard. (I may still do that).

Winter mood

2012-01-15T09:00:00.007Z

Going down to photograph the sheep corral you see in the background and a nearby waterfall, I spotted this massive fencepost, held in place by steel cables, and couldn't resist taking a shot. Icelanders driftwood a lot for building fences and, as in this instance, often leave the wood rough and unfinished.

Lambs to the slaughter

2012-01-14T09:00:00.000Z

While driving home from a visit to my parents a couple of months ago I stopped at a roadside diner/service station to get some coffee, and noticed a lifestock transportation truck in the parking lot. It was probably taking lambs to be slaughtered, or it may have been taking sheep somewhere for restocking. The animals need to be sheltered but still must be able to breathe, and the sides of the truck were covered with plywood with holes cut in it to let in air. Every now and then a muzzle would appear through one of the holes and the animal would sniff the air. It looked rather pathetic, but offered a great photo opportunity:

Hallgrímskirkja at night

2012-01-13T09:00:00.000Z

One night just before Yule I spent a couple of hours out in the frost shooting the festive lights in the centre of Reykjavík (see some of my December shots, e.g. of Austurvöllur). On my way home I decided to snap some photos of Hallgrímskirkja and therefore took a route through the Þingholt neighbourhood that lead straight to the church, and came upon a make-shift police check-point. The police were stopping every car and breathalysing every driver going past the church. I, of course, passed the test and drove into the church parking lot, went out with my gear and started taking photos. However, I got stopped again coming out of the parking lot (no more inebriated than I was going in), and although it was only around 10 p.m., the officer who stopped me told me they had already caught several drunk drivers. What it is that makes people think it's okay to drink and drive is beyond my understanding.

As for the photo, it was taken from the middle of the Skólavörðustígur to get a perfectly centered view, and I therefore had to rely on autofocus for speed, as I didn't want to hold up the traffic while standing and fiddling with the focus ring. As you can see, the AF wasn't quite working due to the darkness. Some night when I can count on there not being much traffic, I'm going back there to try to get a sharply focused shot.

The orange cast in the sky is light pollution - I could Photoshop it away but the church wouldn't look quite as spooky without it.

Sunset or sunrise (not sure which)

2012-01-12T09:00:00.001Z

I'm not even sure where this photo was taken, but Skagafjörður is a possibility.
Original on film.

Testing the phone camera

2012-01-11T09:00:00.003Z

Last Friday I had a chance to test the 'Night' and 'Firework' programs that come with the camera in my new phone, and was rather amazed at the quality of the exposures. Mind you, they aren't great photos by any stretch - you can only do so much, especially at night, at slow speeds with a hand-held camera with fixed focus and no flash - but they really are better than I expected after my previous experiences of using an early model digital camera with a low megapixel count.The results are wonderfully grungy, reminiscent of what you might get from an old-fashioned point-and-shoot film camera, e.g. a Kodak Brownie, under the same conditions:

Here are some examples.

First a picture of my friend's daughter playing with a sparkler, followed by a couple of fireworks shots.

All were taken using the Firework program:

Frame added using Snapbucket

This one was taken using the Night program:

Although the focus is (euphemistically) soft, the exposure is pretty good considering the lack of flash

And here is a copy of the same image after I ran it through Snapbucket and added a Lomo filter, purple glitter, a vignette and a frame. Somehow the bad focus doesn't seem to matter any more...

I can see now that the purple glitter was a mistake...

"Birds flying high..."

2012-01-10T09:00:00.000Z

A flock of seagulls silhouetted against the sky:

Fern frost

2012-01-08T09:00:00.003Z

Fern frost on the roof of my car forming lovely patterns, barely glimpsed because of the shallow depth-of-field:

Technical information, all photos:

Camera: NIKON D7000

Date/Time: 2011:12:31 13:44

Focal Length: 105.0mm (35mm equivalent: 157...

Exposure Time: 0.0080 s (1/125)

Aperture: f/7.1

ISO Equiv.: 400

White balance: Auto

Metering Mode: matrix

Adjusted the contrast using GIMP, to bring out the patterns more clearly, and cropped the first photo.

Picturesque ruin

2012-01-08T09:00:00.001Z

These were taken on Christmas Eve. The snow was beginning to blow off the mountain but the wind had not yet picked up where I was standing.

The shell of an old sheep-house makes a stark contrast with the snowy landscape. Since the photo was more or less monochromatic anyway, I went all the way and converted it to black-and-white and increased the contrasts.

Here is the same ruin in colour.

I wanted to show the slate blue shades of the sky contrasted with the snow and dry grass and so kept it in colour.

Dinner service

2012-01-07T09:00:00.000Z

A herd of Icelandic horses grazing in a pasture near the north end of the Hvalfjörður tunnel.

This photo was taken in the autumn, when there was still just a touch of green left in the grass, but could otherwise easily be a winter shot.

New Year's Eve bonfire

2012-01-06T17:00:00.002Z

The New Year's Eve bonfire in Garðabær was a success as usual.

The photo was taken from the top of a building overlooking the scene.

If the weather permits, I'll be going to an Epiphany bonfire and fireworks show tonight.

Technical information:
Camera: NIKON D7000
Date/Time: 2011:12:31 21:29:37
Focal Length: 62.0mm (35mm equivalent: 93mm)
Exposure Time: 0.500 s (1/2)
Aperture: f/5.3
ISO Equiv.: 100
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: Manual

Snapbucket (testing)

2012-01-06T15:00:00.000Z

I have a new "toy". Or maybe I should call it a mixture of toy and useful gadget. My old cell phone died just before the holidays and I sat down with the corpse in my hands and had a long think. I have always preferred single-task devices over multi-gadgets - that is, I prefer dedicated tools that perform one particular function really well, rather than multi-tasking gadgets with bells and whistles that do several things but none of them well. I have never bought a TV-video or TV-DVD player combo, never owned a camerahone, never even considered a washer-dryer. The only extras I have ever found remotely useful in my cell phones have been the various chronometric functions (alarm, reminder, countdown, stopwatch) and occasionally the calculator.

However, at some point one has to make an exception to such a rule. I travel a lot, both locally and abroad, or maybe it would be more correct to say that when I travel, I really travel. Although I might enjoy a short city trip, I much prefer road trips of three weeks and upwards, and have plans to visit places where having a navigation system would save a lot of hassles. I had therefore decided to start saving up for a GPS navigation device. Having seen ads for smartphones with GPS navigation and maps installed, I took a closer look, and realised that maybe, for once, having a multi-function gadget wasn't so bad. After all, what is a smartphone, really, other than a miniature computer you can make phone calls from? It was certainly considerably cheaper to buy a smartphone with GPS rather than a regular cell phone and a GPS device. (I realise, of course, that a GPS device is better at navigating than a smartphone, but the GPS function on the phone is good enough for me to begin with).

So off I went, checked what was available, read the reviews and decided what I wanted. I ended up with a Samsung Galaxy Mini smartphone, and have been getting to know it. Already I can see that I can eliminate from my handbag the book I always carry around to read, my notebook, the spirit level, shopping lists, book wishlist, and small camera, and possibly even the flashlight (although I still need to test that particular app). I have downloaded several apps, including a shopping list/pantry management app that is going to make it very easy to locate my shopping list and book list when I lose them - all I have to do is make a phone call and listen for the ring.

After downloading and testing a couple of camera apps (and discovering that the one I most covet doesn't work with the phone), I ended up installing Snapbucket. I am still learning to use it, but I think it has potential. It doesn't seem to have a sharpening function, which is a pity since the phone camera is a fixed focus device and I still haven't quite gotten the hang of how far from the subject it needs to be for good focus, but so far it hasn't crashed the phone and seems to be fairly quick and the first upload worked seamlessly.

On the left is the first uploaded image. It's out of focus but the effects look okay (bronze tint filter, large black vignette, grunge white frame).

Apparently, the more you use it, the more effects will become available, so there is an incentive to use it. For me - with my big, advanced camera and software like GIMP, Photoshop and Photomatix at my fingertips - it will never be more than a toy, but for some situations a toy camera is all you need. I plan to continue to test camera apps and will post about them when I have explored their possibilities.

Now if only the Blogger app functioned with this phone...

A final Yule photo

2012-01-06T09:00:00.006Z

Although the holidays are over, it is still technically Christmas/Yule. Today is, in fact, the last day of Christmastide/Yuletide/Twelvetide. Here is a Yule tree I spotted aboard a whale-watching boat in the harbour when I went down there to do a spot of night photography on the night of New Year's Day.

Technical information:

Camera: NIKON D7000
Date/Time: 2012:01:01 20:38:27
Focal Length: 21.0mm (35mm equivalent: 31mm)
Exposure Time: 2.000 s
Aperture: f/4.0
ISO Equiv.: 100
Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: Manual

I used a tripod, and cropped this out of a larger photo using GIMP.

Snæfellsjökull at sunset

2012-01-05T09:00:00.000Z

Snæfellsjökull is clearly visible from many places in Reykjavík.

This was shot from the sculpture garden in Grafarvogur:

Casualty of the snow

2012-01-04T09:00:00.000Z

A pedestrian crossing sign in the city centre lies half-buried in a pile of dirty snow/ice, probably pushed down by a passing snow-plow, or possibly hit by a driver blinded by wind-blown snow. Reykjavík has been under snow for the last couple of weeks, with all the attendant problems: cars stuck in snow-drifts, pedestrians falling on ice and hurting themselves, tons of corrosive salt poured on the streets in an attempt to reduce the ice. To add insult to injury, it rained a couple of days ago, but only just enough to get all the snow thoroughly soaked before it froze again.

Fireworks in general vs. controlled fireworks

2012-01-03T17:00:00.004Z

On New Year's Eve Icelanders let loose their inner children and express their delight in things that go "boom!" with a frantic fireworks display. Sales number indicate that 600 tons of fireworks were shot up or blown up on the one night. I like fireworks as much as the next person, but I must admit that their beauty can be much better enjoyed by watching a controlled fireworks show. Below I have posted two of my best fireworks shots from New Years Eve, and a slide show of the rest:

General fireworks, taken from the shore near Grótta, with Nesstofa in the foreground:

Fireworks show in Garðabær:

Reykjavík City Hall on a winter's night

2012-01-03T10:00:00.001Z

Since the handful of people who voted in the December poll said they wanted to see technical data for the photos, I will, as of today, start posting technical information for some of the shots. These will mostly be the newer photos, since I don't have the information for some of the older ones, especially the scanned photos. Also, some of the older digital shots were processed with software that strips away the exif data and I'd need to go back to the originals to find it, so I may not always post technical information for those.

Reykjavík City Hall, photo taken from the east bank of the Pond.

Since this was a long exposure, some of the ducks look like long ghostly blurs on the surface of the water.

Technical data:
Camera: Nikon D7000
Lens: Nikon AF-S DX 18-105mm
Date/Time: 2012:01:01 21:05:25
Focal Length: 42.0mm (35mm equivalent: 63mm)
Exposure Time: 6.000 s
Aperture: f/4.8
ISO Equiv.: 100
White balance: Auto (chosen since there were so many different light sources that it didn't matter what was used - I was always going to get colour shifts)
Metering Mode: matrix
Exposure: shutter priority (semi-auto)

Additionally, I used a tripod, and corrected the worst of the colour shift using GIMP.

Winter grazing

2012-01-02T09:00:00.001Z

Snow is on the ground and the horses are getting a regular feed of hay to supplement what they can scratch for though the snow. The Spákonufellsborg looks rather ominous in the background, with the wind blowing loose snow off her top.

Click here to see a previous photo taken in the same spot.

New Year's Wishes

2012-01-01T09:00:00.003Z

Happy New Year everyone!

Best wishes for your good health and happiness in 2012!

2011-12-31T23:59:00.005Z

Sticky post: The latest photos will post beneath this message.

Please answer the poll at the bottom of the page. It will help me to decide whether or not to make some changes to the blog I have been considering lately.

For some reason the poll question disappears when I put it at the top of the blog, so I have had to stick it on the bottom where it is not easy to notice (I should have put it in a post, but it's too late for that now). The poll runs to the end of December.

Thank you.

Countdown to New Year's Eve: Tonight's the night!

2011-12-31T09:00:00.002Z

To end my countdown to New Year's Eve, here are some rather spooky bonfire photos in which you can clearly see why some people used to think fire was a living thing:

Warm winter coats

2011-12-30T17:00:00.000Z

Icelandic horses in their thick winter coats look almost like plush stuffed toys:

Countdown to New Year's Eve: 1 day to go

2011-12-30T09:00:00.009Z

We don't live on the family farm any more, but we do use it as as a summer house, and in the winter we store potatoes there. Going to get the potatoes for the Yule dinner, we encountered this:

This very small and localised snowdrift is the result of a whirlwind that forms in the angle between the house and the stables.

Horse

2011-12-29T17:00:00.011Z

On Christmas Eve after lunch our family (that is to say my parents, my brother and myself) go on two visits. First we visit the graves of my paternal great-grandparents, the only ones of our close relatives buried near where we live. This is to remember and honour their memories at this time when it is important to us for the family to be together. We leave a branch of evergreen on the grave much as we would do with flowers in the summer.

The second visit is to our horses. We go to see them and give them their Christmas feed and some bread, which they really love. This time, one of them needed to have his hooves looked at, so we brought a halter to hold him while my father tended to his hooves. Here he stands patiently on three legs while dad looks at one of his front hooves. At this point it was too dark to take photos without a flash:

It was getting rapidly more light as they worked, and the next photo could be taken without a flash.

Here he is listening very intently to what is happening behind him as both my father and brother work on one of his rear hooves:

Countdown to New Year's Eve: 2 days to go

2011-12-29T09:00:00.004Z

... and I give you: More fireworks!

I have been hearing intermittent explosions since mid-December, but as of tonight they will become more frequent and will reach a high point a few minutes past midnight on New Year's Night, when the din will have become a constant roar that will make sleep impossible.

Sometimes I could just cry...

2011-12-28T17:00:00.006Z

...over a missed photo opportunity, or, as in this case, a bungled one. Good light, perfect pose, ears alert, the wind playing just right in his mane. Unfortunately I pressed the button a fraction of a second too soon, so the shot came out slightly unfocused:

Countdown to New Year's Eve: 3 days to go

2011-12-28T09:00:00.001Z

Before regulations on air pollution restricted what could and could not be put on the New Year's bonfires, we used to burn up not only all the wood scraps and paper we could amass in the month leading up to the bonfire, but also old furniture, tyres, and oil that the mechanics at the local garage had tapped from the cars in the neighbourhood when they were brought in for an oil change. The oil would be brought in in barrels and young men would run between the barrels and the fire with buckets, throwing oil on the flames (see the bottom photo). It was a dangerous job, and therefore one highly sought after by the young daredevils of the district.

The two most memorable bonfires of my childhood and teens, respectively, were when the remains of small wooden houses that had been used as dormitories for workmen but had been partially destroyed in a fire, were the core of the bonfire, and when we put an old decommissioned fishing boat on the fire (bottom photo). These days, the fire consists mostly of scrap lumber, broken wooden pallets and old Christmas trees.

These are old photos, taken on film:

Fireworks...

2011-12-27T17:00:00.000Z

I didn't make many attempts to photograph fireworks when I was shooting on film, but I did make a few. These, taken in Sauðárkrókur many years ago, might not be photographically very good, but I love how the fireworks came to resemble living beings:

Countdown to New Year's Eve: 4 days to go

2011-12-27T09:00:00.000Z

The fireworks-sellers are out in force and flogging their wares. When I buy fireworks, I generally buy them from either the Scouts or from Landsbjörg, the Association for Search and Rescue. Every year they help hundreds of people out of difficulties ranging from pulling cars out of snowdrifts to very difficult rescues from stranded ships, and it is all done by volunteers. They depend on the income they get from selling fireworks and as a recipient of aid from them I feel it is my duty to support them.

The forst two images are from an annual fireworks display held in conjunction with the New Year's Eve bonfire in Garðabær, a neighbouring city of Reykjavík, and the rest are from the bonfire itself:

Austurvöllur by day and night

2011-12-26T09:00:00.000Z

Austurvöllur is the name of the square in front of the parliament house and the cathedral. Also located on the square are Hótel Borg, one of the city's oldest and most respected hotels, and the nightclub Nasa, along with several pubs, cafés and restaurants.

Here you can see it in the day-time, with the statue of national hero Jón Sigurðsson to the left:

At this time of the year the trees in Austurvöllur twinkle with fairy lights:

Icebound waterfall in Þingvellir

2011-12-25T17:00:00.000Z

Happy Holidays everyone!

Icebound waterfalls can make magnificent photo opportunities. I have yet to get a photo of Gullfoss in that condition, but some years ago I was lucky enough to capture some icy shots of Öxarárfoss, the waterfall in the river that flows into the Almannagjá rift in Þingvellir. As you can see, it was completely covered over with ice:

The river was still flowing underneath the ice, and as a matter of fact the people in the photo were standing right on top of it:

Some of the "sculptures" were amazing:

There were several foreign tourists there and all were excited to see and take photos of the phenomenon:

Gleðileg jól!

2011-12-25T09:00:00.000Z

Happy Yule! Merry Christmas! Glædelig Jul! Joyeaux noël!

Thanks for the visits and comments in 2011

The Reykjavík cathedral

Snow buntings

2011-12-23T17:00:00.000Z

Snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis, subspecies insulae) are welcome and delightful winter visitors in many towns and villages in Iceland. They nest in the highlands but in the winter they form flocks, often quite large, and seek the shelter of wooded and inhabited areas. Many people feed them through the snowy months.

After the first snow of the winter my parents buy a sack of wheatberries and feed the birds daily while there is snow on the ground. They have come to be quite fearless of us, although not as fearless as of the old man who used to live next door. The birds would come and actually sit on him when he went out to feed them.

I took these photos on my father's Canon EOS Rebel DSLR camera last winter. All of them are crops from larger photos with more birds - thankfully the photos one can get with DSLRs are very large so it is possible to get decent sized crops out of them. The first one is my favourite.

Yule calendar: 1 day to go

2011-12-23T09:00:00.010Z

One year I crocheted two angels that could be used as table decorations or as tree toppers and gave one to my mother and the other to my aunt. My aunt has hers up all year round, but my mother uses hers as a Yule tree topper. I didn't use a recipe for either, making them up as I went along, but I did note down how I made them and one day I when I find the notebook again, I plan to type them up and see if I can sell them to a crochet magazine. Here my mom's angel looks very regal on top of the tree:

Then Ljúfur decided the angel would make a perfect perch:

"Stoppit! Ouch! Show some respect!"

Yule calendar: 2 days to go

2011-12-22T09:00:00.000Z

Happy Solstice!

Today is the shortest day of the year, and tomorrow the days begin to lengthen.

The Reykjavík cathedral at night. One tends to think of cathedrals as big, soaring stone buildings with spires that seem to be trying to spear the clouds, but the Reykjavík cathedral is small and squat. The oldest part of the church was consecrated in 1796. It has been added to and enlarged twice since then.

Seen in the day time, from Austurvöllur:

Yule calendar: 3 days to go

2011-12-21T09:00:00.000Z

The daylight doesn't last long at this time of the year, and as a matter of fact the year's shortest day is tomorrow. The lights on the Yule trees and in the windows and on the houses brighten up the darkness, but nothing beats a little sunlight at this time of the year. Unfortunately it has been mostly cloudy for the last couple of weeks, and for the last week or so it has snowed and rained by turns. I did see a glimpse of blue sky on Saturday, but no sun.

This tree stands in the middle of Ingólfstorg, in the centre of Reykjavík. There is a charming little Christmas market in the square.

This is what it looks like at night, when all the stalls are closed:

Yule calendar: 4 days to go

2011-12-20T09:00:00.007Z

Yesterday you saw the tree outside, now I give you the whole building. See the face?

This is not a Photoshop trick, and neither is it a projected image, but merely a coincidence of light and shadow.

Yule calendar: 5 days to go

2011-12-19T09:00:00.005Z

By now, there are Yule trees wherever you look. This one is situated outside the Harpa concert hall:

Þingvellir in winter, part 3

2011-12-18T17:00:00.000Z

The Þingvellir house belongs to the government and is used for public receptions and as a summer house by the Prime Minister. It is not open to the public except on rare special occasions. Designed by Guðjón Samúelsson and built in 1930, it is built in a style imitative of the wood-gabled turf houses of the 18th and 19th centuries. The rightmost two section were added onto the house in the 1970s. Here seen in winter:

On the left you can see part of the roof of Hotel Valhöll, which burned down in 2009:

Here is the view towards the lake.
All three photos are taken from the same spot in the rim of the Almannagjá rift.

And here is an interesting rock formation in the Almannagjá. How many trolls can you see?

Yule Calendar: 6 days to go

2011-12-18T09:00:00.007Z

Many people will have bought and decorated their Christmas trees by now.
Here is a decked-out Yule tree in the Christmas House in Hrafnagil:

More fireworks

2011-12-17T17:00:00.000Z

You can never have enough fireworks - that at least would seem to be the motto of the Icelandic nation as we prepare for celebrating the new year.These were taken 2 or 3 years ago, on a handheld digital camera:

Yule calendar: 7 days to go

2011-12-17T09:00:00.000Z

If I hadn't been forced to seek alternative parking due to the mall parking garage being packed when I went to the mall to get my brother's Christmas present, I never would have thought of photographing this huge but tasteful wreath. Seeing it right in front of me as I parked the car, I naturally pulled out my camera:

One more santa

2011-12-16T17:00:00.000Z

This one stands in the window of Reykjavík's oldest hardware store, Brynja:

Yule calendar: 8 days to go

2011-12-16T09:00:00.009Z

There are tasteful Yule decorations.
Then there is this:

Thankfully there is only one sleigh:

But there are (I think) four reindeer, and a number of reindeer heads.

All of them silvery and spangly with wreaths resembling untidy bird's nests around their necks:

Yule Calendar: 9 days to go

2011-12-15T10:18:00.002Z

I am not particularly fond of artificial Yule trees in other colours than the traditional green, but I thought this one looked kind of cute and just right for the store:

Fireworks!

2011-12-14T17:00:00.000Z

While it is New Year's Eve that sees fireworks and not the Yule festival, I have been hearing fireworks every now and then since the beginning of the month, a clear indication that people who are unable to hold back until New Year's Eve have been doing a bit of pre-celebrating, or possibly clearing out their fireworks stores in preparation for buying fresh supplies.

The top photo photos is from last year's New Year's Eve fireworks display in Garðabær, which is where I attend the annual New Year's bonfire. The other three are from the display in neighbouring Kópavogur, which was clearly visible from the bonfire.

I'll post some more fireworks photos later, and also bonfire photos.

Yule Calendar: 10 days to go

2011-12-14T09:00:00.000Z

About 15 years ago I lived in a small basement apartment in an old house situated on the corner of two very busy streets in Reykjavík - in fact I would guess that the intersection was one of the busiest in the city until the authorities built a thoroughfare that cuts through where the car dealership across the street used to be. Every year the car dealership would set up a large Christmas tree. Here you can see it as it looked one December night just before the holidays. The haze is caused by blurred snowflakes:

From my scanned photos. Long exposure on film.

Here is the intersection itself. Because it's a long exposure, only the stopped cars are visible, the others appearing as white streaks of light. You can see an ambulance on the right. Since one of the streets is the shortest route for both the ambulance service and the fire-brigade to get to downtown Reykjavík, it could get quite noisy, with sirens blaring at any time of day or night. Living there, you either quickly learned to ignore the noise, or you went slowly crazy.

From my scanned photo. Long exposure on film.

Winter walk

2011-12-13T17:00:00.006Z

Yule Calendar: 11 days to go

2011-12-13T09:00:00.002Z

Today several European countries celebrate St. Lucia's Day. The tradition is especially strong in Sweden and Norway, and here in Iceland some congregations, as well as ex-pat Swedes and Norwegians, celebrate it. I don't have a Lucia photo for you, but here are the trawlers in the harbour in Skagaströnd, decked out with strings of lights. Taken, on film, one Christmas many years ago:

Yule decoration idea

2011-12-12T17:00:00.010Z

If you're good at crocheting, make small single pineapple patterns, dampen with a half-and-half mixture of water and white glue, squeeze well and block (put baking paper underneath so it will not stick to the blocking surface). When it's dry, decorate with ribbons and charms:

Yule Calendar: 12 days to go

2011-12-12T09:00:00.000Z

This Santa looks ready for a fight, but he really just wants to give you a haircut.
Window display in a hair salon.

Þingvellir in winter, part 2

2011-12-11T17:00:00.000Z

The church in Þingvellir is tiny and perfectly proportioned.

Here it is pictured on a cold but lovely winter's day:

Yule Calendar: 13 days to go

2011-12-11T09:00:00.007Z

Icelanders read and produce more books per capita than any other nation in the world. For commercial reasons most books are published in the months leading up to Yule, in a phenomenon that has come to be called "The Christmas Book Flood" (in Icelandic: Jólabókaflóðið). Book adverts dominate the media from mid-November until Christmas Eve and books are the favourite choice to both give and receive as Yule presents. Here a stuffed Santa sits in the window display of a bookshop, in company with Haruki Murakami and the book that seems set to become this year's non-fiction bestseller.

Is this a Yule tree or A Halloween tree?

2011-12-10T17:00:00.002Z

Unusual spider-web decorations lend a certain Nightmare Before Christmas flavour this Christmas tree in the Christmas House in Hrafnagil:

Yule Calendar: 14 days to go

2011-12-10T09:00:00.000Z

Look at poor Santa. Must have been some night last night:

Trúnó is a bar, the latest in a long line of bars and nightclubs to be situated at Laugavegur 22. Back when I was in college it was called simply "22" and was the main gay bar in the city. I don't know who hangs out there these days.

The Christmas Shop

2011-12-09T17:00:00.000Z

Not far from the shop with the polar bear I posted this morning is the little Christmas Shop. It's open the year round and is very popular with both tourists and locals. I wouldn't want to work there, though.

Yule Calendar: 15 days to go

2011-12-09T09:00:00.011Z

In recent years, life-size furry fake polar bears have become something of a trademark for the souvenir shops in the city centre in Reykjavík. On my walks through the area I often see tourists haveing their pictures taken posing next to the bears, so they are a definite draw. Someone decided to liven this dirty and rather miserable looking specimen up for the Yule season, and I don't think they were entirely successful:

Þingvellir in winter, part 1

2011-12-08T17:00:00.003Z

One of the things that make Þingvellir such a beauty spot is the combination of water and lava. The area is criss-crossed with faults and rifts (Almannagjá being the biggest) that are full of water, and some are big enough and deep enough for diving. Here are some winter snapshots of some of the faults:

Yule Calendar: 16 days to go

2011-12-08T09:00:00.015Z

I really need to buy a polarizing filter. My photos of the Christmas window displays downtown didn't really come out very well.

Hokus Pokus is a novelty and joke shop on the Laugavegur that sells, among other things, costumes for various occasions. I guess they decided to use this "sexy" one as part of their Christmas window display because of the colours...

"Hi! Is that bread you're holding?"

2011-12-07T17:00:00.000Z

We save up all our bread crusts and stale bread to feed to our horses as treats. As a result, it is usually enough to show up with a plastic bag and rustle it to make them come running.They are especially fond of dark rye bread, which is probably why this fellow mistook the camera for a hunk of bread and tried to eat it:

Yule Calendar: 17 days to go

2011-12-07T09:00:00.000Z

Have I mentioned I crochet? This is one of my creations: A Yule tree topper/Christmas decoration I made and gave to my aunt several years ago. Later in December I will post a photo of another one of my angels.

Buried (almost) in snow

2011-12-06T17:00:00.000Z

The winters when I was a child and teenager seemed both longer and snowier than they do now.

When snow collects in drifts rather than builds up evenly, it can produce strange results. Here, a house was partially buried up to the eaves, while you can still see a patch of withered grass in the garden.

From my scanned photos.

--o--

Here is what we woke up to one December morning when I was in my teens. Someone hadn't closed the door properly, so that when the snow started building up outside, the door was pushed open little by little. Fortunately is only opened a tiny bit, and that only happened when the snow had got very high.

To get out, we used the dustpan to dig an opening at the top. Then my father got up on a chair and dived out and dug us out from the outside.

Another winter one of the houses in another part of the town that usually doesn't see such heavy snowdrifts disappeared completely under snow and the woman living there had to be dug out. She moved to Reykjavík the next summer, saying that she never wanted to live through another winter up north.

From my scanned photos.

Yule Calendar: 18 days to go, and today we visit the Christmas House

2011-12-06T09:00:00.000Z

Today several countries in Europe celebrate St. Nicholas Day.

This is a year-round Christmas shop in Hrafnagil, not far from Akureyri. There is always a fire going in the fireplace, Christmas carols play constantly on the stereo system and you can shop for decorations and Christmas trinkets to your heart's content. Unfortunately I have never been there in the winter, but I imagine it must look magical in the snow. Just click here to see what it looks like in the winter.

The "outhouse" (background) has to be experienced to be believed.

Some Scandinavian Christmas decorations that are available in the shop:

The elf chapel in close-up:

An apartment building for birds:

Santa's laundry hanging out to dry:

Þingvellir: High summer and deep winter

2011-12-05T17:00:00.003Z

Visiting Þingvellir in different seasons will give you completely different memories of the place.

Here the famous waterfall, Öxarárfoss, falls free and unhindered in high summer:

And here is looks like it is carved in ice.

Actually, this is just icy armour - the river still flows underneath the ice. It doesn't take much frost for it to freeze over, only a few degrees, but it does take a number of days for the ice to get this thick and cover it completely.

Here is the Almannagjá:

In the noonday glare of a summer's day:

...and on a winter afternoon

Yule Calendar: 19 days to go

2011-12-05T09:00:00.006Z

This kind of decoration has been becoming ever more popular year by year: A Christmas tree hung high on a wall on the outside of a house. Some are bare, some are hung with lights like this one. The house, incidentally, is the restaurant Lækjarbrekka.

Horses in winter weather

2011-12-04T17:00:00.003Z

Spákonufellsborg is a mountain with many faces. Here it is seen from the north, with horses clustered around a pile of hay in the foreground. These hardy little horses are kept outside in the winter when they are not being used for riding, in which case they are stabled. They get regular feeding to supplement the winter grazing and when there is snow on the ground they are fed daily. They also have shelter where they go when the weather isn't good.

Yule Calendar: 20 days to go

2011-12-04T09:00:00.003Z

Every year in December Yule decorations and lights are hung all around the city centre, to brighten up the darkness and give a unified look to the area. They are put up on the street lights and some are hung on strings between houses over the streets.

Camera: Nikon D7000.

Yule Calendar: 21 days to go

2011-12-03T09:00:00.000Z

When I was younger, we used to bring in the (plastic) Yule tree on December 23 and trim it together. Now my parents buy and cut down their own live tree about a week before Yule and we trim it right away.

Here is Ljúfur helping us trim the tree.

Here, on the other hand, he is just posing. You can just see Quasi's beak poking into the photo:

Kálfshamarsvík

2011-12-02T17:00:00.050Z

Kálfshamarsvík ('Calf's Cliff Cove') is a cove on the western side of the Skagi peninsula in northern Iceland, about 20-30 minutes drive from Skagaströnd. It is known for its beautiful basalt columns and well worth a stop if you are interested in geology or beautiful nature - although in weather like this it doesn't look very welcoming..

It used to be a fishing centre and the ruins of several sod houses are scattered over the area, most marked with plagues. These snapshots were taken one very cold December a few years ago. If the weather allows, I may go there this December to do more winter photography.

The top photo shows the Kálfshamar or "Calf's Cliff" seen from across the cove. It is a magnificent example of hexagonal columns. Such columns are found all along the shore of the small headland opposite the cliff. Just walk in the direction of the lighthouse and you can't miss them.

These columns jut out into the sea just below the lighthouse:

Yule calendar: 22 days to go.

2011-12-02T09:00:00.005Z

Today's calendar entry is the first in a series about Yuletide in a small town in Iceland.

This is the elementary school I went to. When I was in 7th or 8th grade, several classes made faux stained glass pictures out of construction paper and coloured florist paper for Yule and put them in the windows of the school. The display was a big hit and in the following years more and more pictures were made for more and more windows until almost every window in the school was covered. The displays change a bit from year to year because there is always some damage when they are taken down after the New Year, so every class gets to make one or more every year. These are scans of photos I took many years ago. It will be interesting to see this year's decorations.

Christmas gospel and Yule lads.

Yule lads.

Ikea Yuletide

2011-12-01T17:00:00.001Z

The first commercial enterprise in Iceland in recent years to start selling Christmas decorations and gifts each year is Ikea. This year they started in mid-September. I boycott them from September until the beginning of December, and as a matter of fact I avoid most shops other than supermarkets during November, because while I do like to look at the lights and window decorations, I hate how Yule has become over-commercialised. It's like all that matters is shopping, not the joy the holidays bring.

The Ikea Yule tree from a few years back.

Yule calendar: 23 days to go

2011-12-01T09:00:00.011Z

No, I'm not confused - the Yule holidays start at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve in Iceland.

I plan for December's photos to be completely seasonal. I have a number of photos from past winters and Yuletides that I am going to post this December, along with a Countdown to Christmas like I did in 2006 - only I'm calling it a Yule calendar, as I prefer to downplay the religious connotations. I will also be out and about with my camera, taking photos of the season and posting the best of the results here, so there may be two photo posts per day on some days.

These lights are lovely to look at, but a pain to put up and take down.
The owner of this particular tree leaves the string up year round.

You may well ask why an agnostic makes so much of Christmas, or Yule as I like to call it. The thing is, I haven't celebrated it as a religious holiday for over 2 decades, but as a time to enjoy being with my family during the darkest time of the year, and to celebrate the beginning of the return to longer daylight hours.

Iceland in December is dark and gloomy and the weather is often bad, plus the daylight only lasts about 3 1/2 hours each day as the winter solstice approaches. It is therefore imperative to do something to lighten the inevitable heavy mood all this darkness and bad weather brings on and Yule is perfect for that.

What I love most about the lead-up to Yule is the coloured lights and the decorations and tinsel that brighten up the darkness. I can do without the blatant commercialisation and blaring Christmas carols and seasonal songs being played over and over until they're stuck in your head, so the only shops I go to in October and November are supermarkets to buy food and the bakery for bread. I also almost completely stop listening to the radio until I am am good and ready for the seasonal music.

Reykjavík Culture Night 2011, bonus photo: Street theatre

2011-11-30T17:00:00.003Z

I missed the performance this colourful performer was part of but was able to snap a photo when the troupe passed me by in the street:

Need a cheap ego boost?

2011-11-30T16:22:00.000Z

Post a reasonably good photo to an award group on flickr. Then give out awards to all and sundry in the group, leaving nice comments with the awards and favouriting some of them to increase the likelihood of reciprocal awarding.

Then settle back and watch the accolades roll in and the faves and comments pile up. It will (probably) not get you into Explore (which is the dream of many flickrerites), but it feels good...

Reykjavík Culture Night 2011: Singing

2011-11-30T09:00:00.004Z

This small choir, the Bartones (Bartónar), joined a band that was performing in Hjartatorg, a small square situated between Hverfisgata and Laugarvegur:

Aerial ballet no. 2

2011-11-29T09:00:00.001Z

Another tern photo. The birds in this one seem to be executing a complicated dance in the air.

Coast Guard ships in the twilight

2011-11-28T17:00:00.001Z

Icelandic coast guard ships docked near the Harpa concert hall. I was getting ready to photograph the Harpa (photos posted yesterday and the day before) when I spotted them and thought they would make excellent subjects for low-light photography. It wasn't quite dark out yet, but darker than the photo suggests - you get that when shooting long exposures in the twilight hours. I plan on going back some night when it's completely dark to take some shots for comparison.

Camera: Nikon D7000, 30-second exposure at f/29.

Harpa from the inside

2011-11-28T09:00:00.012Z

A couple of interior shots of the Harpa, both taken during the Culture Night celebrations in August, when there was an open house:

Harpa at night

2011-11-27T17:00:00.003Z

These were taken late one afternoon a couple of weeks ago, just as the sky was about to turn from dark indigo to black. LED lights are installed in the glass casing and they blink slowly on and off in no particular sequence during the hours of darkness. Since these are all 30-second exposures, I captured quite a number of these lights.

Harpa in close-up

2011-11-27T09:00:00.002Z

The angles and geometry of the Harpa can be an endless source of subjects for photographers:

Two faces of Harpa

2011-11-26T09:00:00.003Z

The name Harpa means "harp", but is also an Icelandic female name and the name of one of the old lunar months, and the people in charge of the place want it treated grammatically as such. Thus you would not say "I am going to a concert in the Harpa" (Ég ætla á tónleika í Hörpunni), but simply "I am going to a concert in Harpa" (Ég ætla á tónleika í Hörpu).

This has offended language purists, as by leaving out the definite article the building is being spoken of as if it were a human being and not a thing. Personally, I think people should refer to it whichever way they choose.

Here you can see "her" by day and night, photos taken from almost the same spot:

Harpa, glowing in the light of the setting sun

2011-11-25T17:00:00.000Z

I have heard the Harpa concert hall and conference centre called "the world's largest piece of glass art". The glittering facade was designed by artist Ólafur Elíasson. Here it is seen bathed in the golden rays of the setting sun, across the building area.

There is still a huge pit beside the building and various uses have been suggested for the area, from a parking garage to a hotel to a public park.

De-construction

2011-11-25T09:00:00.001Z

Before Harpa, the new concert hall and conference centre in Reykjavík, could be built, first another building had to be torn down. It took months.

Here a digger is being used to break down the graffiti-covered wall enclosing the top of the building, which used to be a parking lot:

Support columns with reinforcing bars sticking out of them, looking like surreal stork nests:

A digger at work:

Digital photos, Canon PowerShot A430, the last one altered by tonemapping in Photomatix

Colour explosion

2011-11-24T09:00:00.001Z

Can you guess what it is?

Digital photo, Canon PowerShot A430

Reykjavík Culture Night 2011: Salsa dancing in Lækjartorg

2011-11-23T09:00:00.001Z

These salsa enthusiasts showed off their skills in Lækjartorg, in the heart of downtown Reykjavík: